Caucasian Mediterranean patients seeking rhinoplasty-Anthropometric measurements and prevalence of major deformities.

[OBJECTIVE] To describe the average values of the nasal anthropometric measurements of Caucasian Mediterranean patients seeking rhinoplasty and evaluate the major nasal deformities.

[DESIGN] Prospective, observational and cross-sectional study.

[SETTING] Centro Hospitalar do Porto.

[PARTICIPANTS] A 100 Caucasian Mediterranean patients seeking rhinoplasty.

[OUTCOMES] Standardized photography was used to obtain nasal anthropometric measurements and to evaluate the major nasal defects. Data regarding age, gender, skin type and Fitzpatrick scale were also collected.

[RESULTS] There was a statistically significant difference in the means values of palpebral fissure, intercanthal width, upper lip height, nasal root width, morphological nose width, nose height, nasal tip projection and nasofrontal-hump and nasofrontal-supratip angles between females and males. The major nasal deformity was dorsal hump (78.0%), followed by rinomegalia (53.0%) and boxy bulbous tip (47.0%).

[CONCLUSION] The present study shows statistically significant gender differences between anthropometric nasal measurements and the mean values are greater than standard values obtained on general population. This might be one of the reasons why Caucasian Mediterranean patients seek aesthetical rhinoplasty. On both genders, dorsal hump, rinomegalia and boxy bulbous tip were the major nasal defects. This emphasize the importance of rhinoplasty techniques designed to reconstruct nasal dorsum and nasal tip on Caucasian Mediterranean patients. To the best of our knowledge, our study is the first study of digital anthropometric nasal analysis and evaluation of major nasal defects specifically in Caucasian Mediterranean patients who applied for rhinoplasty. With this results, we provide a reference material for the evaluation of the Caucasian and Mediterranean patient when planning a cosmetic nasal surgery.