Treatment of external nasal valve (alar rim) collapse with an alar strut

Alar (external valve) collapse may be iatrogenic or can occur as a conseque nce of ageing or or trauma. We have utilized an autogenous cartilage graft inserted as an underlay graft to the alar rim to treat 17 patients who have presented with nasal obstruction due to alar collapse. We report the short - and medium-term functional results and the cosmetic sequelae of our appro ach and conclude that this procedure offers an improvement in nasal airway performance in patients with external valve collapse without producing seri ous adverse cosmetic sequelae.