Saddle nose: Our approach to the problem

Saddle nose is usually caused by a trauma or by excessive resection of the septal cartilage. Nevertheless, there are other, less frequent causes of in jury, such as congenital, syphilis, leishmaniosis, and leprosy. Within this context, it is very likely to see widening of the bony bridge and dropping of the tip of the nose. For this clinical status, we found extremely satis factory a therapy in which we use a dorsum cartilage graft, followed by nar rowing of the nasal bridge and shortening of the nose. To achieve this aim, different kinds of materials were employed. The authors usually prefer reh ydrated (0.9% saline solution) human costal cartilage. This material was us ed in a study of a series of patients with saddle nose in which we used ope n rhinoplasty and cartilage homografts.