Management of Pediatric Nasal Surgery (Rhinoplasty)

Johnson MD.

What this paper says

A review stating that nasal surgery in children, usually after trauma, can be done safely in selected patients with a deliberate plan that avoids growth centres, while admitting that long-term growth effects remain poorly understood.

Overview

This is a short clinics-series review without patient data. Johnson frames paediatric rhinoplasty as most often post-traumatic, achievable safely with careful planning, and governed by the principle of preserving nasal growth while improving form and function.

Sections of note

Most paediatric nasal surgery follows trauma.
Surgery is safe in selected patients with "articulate, deliberate, and conscientious" planning.
All paediatric nasal surgery aims to avoid disrupting growth centres.
Long-term outcomes and growth effects remain "elusive."

What it means for a patient

A child's broken or deformed nose can be operated on before adulthood, but the surgeon must plan around the growing parts of the septum and bones.
The honest caveat is that no one has strong long-term data on growth after childhood rhinoplasty.
Trauma, not cosmetic preference, is the usual reason.

Why this paper matters

It states the cautious consensus of its time, which later reviews have moved beyond with more reassuring growth data. Limits: review, no data, brief.

Terms

Growth centre: a region of septal cartilage and bone responsible for nasal and midface growth.
Paediatric rhinoplasty: nasal surgery before skeletal maturity.
Septum: the wall dividing the nasal passages, whose cartilage drives growth in children.

Summary written by rhinoplasty.cc from the abstract, 2026-09-08; not medical advice. The authors' own abstract follows.

From the abstract

“Nasal surgery in children, most often performed after trauma, can be performed safely in selected patients with articulate, deliberate, and conscientious operative plan. All nasal surgery in children seeks to avoid disruption of the growth centers, preserving and optimizing nasal growth while improving the form and…”

Excerpt; the full abstract is on PubMed.