Psychological Evaluation of Patients Seeking Rhinoplasty.

[OBJECTIVE] The aim of this study was to evaluate different determinants of the patient's psychosocial functioning that might possibly affect the outcome of rhinoplastic surgery.

[MATERIALS AND METHODS] Forty-one patients undergoing rhinoplasty, consecutively admitted to and operated upon at the Department of Otolaryngology, Erzurum Regional Training and Research Hospital, Turkey, were studied with regard to their psychological characteristics.

[RESULTS] In the patient group, Liebowitz anxiety, Liebowitz/avoidance, and Liebowitz/total scores were significantly higher than the control group (p<0.001). No significant differences were found between the patient and control groups according to Rosenberg self-esteem scale and The Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale. In the Quality of Life SF-36 results, significant differences were found between the patient and control groups apart from SF-36 scores of pain (p<0.05), vitality (p<0.05), social functioning (p<0.05) and emotional role difficulties (p<0.05).

[CONCLUSION] Patient selection must be done very carefully to obviate not only physical, but also psychological postoperative complications. The SF-36 questionnaire may be of value in screening-patients for psychological problems prior to rhinoplasty.