Los Angeles Rhinoplasty in Beverly Hills - Revision Rhinoplasty

Your Revision Rhinoplasty Procedure

Your revision rhinoplasty procedure can be performed in a surgeon's office-based facility, in a hospital, or in an outpatient surgical facility. Because of the additional challenges, a revision rhinoplasty procedure may take longer than an initial rhinoplasty procedure. If you're having an extensive follow-up procedure, you can count on being in the operating room for approximately three to four hours. However, if you're only having a minor touch-up, your procedure will take about one to two hours. The procedure is most often performed either with a combination of local anesthetics and sedation or with general anesthesia. In most cases, revisions are performed using open rhinoplasty, although closed rhinoplasty may be suitable in some instances. Some revision rhinoplasty procedures require cartilage grafts or soft-tissue grafts as discussed in Chapter 5. Likewise, alloplastic implants, also discussed in Chapter 5, may be necessary.

Recovering from Revision Rhinoplasty

You can expect your recovery from revision rhinoplasty to take somewhat longer than your recovery from your primary procedure. The amount of time it takes for your nose to heal also depends on whether you've had a minor touch-up or a major revision. Major revisions tend to take at least a year to heal.

Following revision rhinoplasty, you may experience some discomfort, but this can usually be alleviated with pain medication. Your surgeon will also provide you with instructions to help reduce swelling and to make you more comfortable while you heal at home or at an aftercare facility. As with any surgical procedure, healing is highly individualized, however, most patients who have a minor touch-up feel well enough to resume work and normal activities within a week. Most patients who have extensive revision require about two weeks to resume work and normal activities. Your surgeon will likely advise you to avoid exercisesuch as weight lifting, running, cycling, or other aerobicsfor at least four weeks. Avoid all contact sports for at least six weeks.

Side Effects and Complications

You should be aware that in addition to the side effects and complications
associated with primary rhinoplasty, certain side effects and complications are increased with revision rhinoplasty, including:

• excessive scarring
• prolonged swelling
• small burst blood vessels

Follow-up Appointments

After your revision rhinoplasty, you can expect to have several follow-up appointments with your surgeon. Typically, you'll be asked to visit your surgeon's office the day after your procedure and perhaps the next day as well. If nasal packing was used, it will be removed at one of these visits. You may be asked to return for three or four more visits
within the first few weeks after surgery. Usually about one week after your surgery, your surgeon will remove any splints placed on your nose and will remove any nonabsorbable stitches. After these initial visits, your surgeon may want to see you on a monthly basis and then on a quarterly basis during the first year after your procedure. After that, you may be asked to return on a yearly basis.

Your Final Results

Following revision rhinoplasty, it may take a year or longer before you see your final results. However, you can expect to see positive results long before a year has passed. In fact, swelling should begin to subside after two weeks and will continue to improve each week or month. You can expect about 70 percent of the swelling to have faded

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