Clinical Application of a Patient-Specific, Three-Dimensional Printing Guide Based on Computer Simulation for Rhinoplasty

Choi JW, Kim MJ, Kang MK, Kim SC, Jeong WS, Kim DH, Lee TH, Koh KS.

PubMed 31985623 Publisher (DOI)

What this paper says

Among 50 rhinoplasty patients, those operated with a 3D printed guide built from their own simulation matched the simulated result more closely than those operated by surgeon judgment, by 11.3 percent for tip projection and 21.6 percent for bridge height.

Overview

Computer simulation shows a patient what result is planned, but nothing carries that plan into the operating room. The authors developed a simulation program and had patient-specific guides printed from the agreed simulation, then compared how closely results matched the plan against a control group.

Sections of note

50 patients who underwent rhinoplasty between January 2017 and February 2018.
Patients were consulted about the desired nose shape using preoperative three-dimensional photography.
The confirmed simulation was sent to a manufacturing company for 3D printed rhinoplasty guides.
Guide group: surgery performed with the printed guide. Control group: surgery based on the surgeon's intuition.
Intraclass correlation between simulated and postoperative measurements was higher in the guide group by 11.3 percent for nasal tip projection, 21.6 percent for dorsum height, and 9.8 percent for nasolabial angle.
The postoperative result of the nasal bridge differed significantly between the two groups, p below 0.05.
Level of evidence III, therapeutic. The abstract does not state the group sizes.

What it means for a patient

The simulation shown at consultation can be carried into surgery as a physical guide rather than remembered.
Agreement between the planned and achieved result improved most for bridge height.
Limits: 50 patients total with group sizes unstated, single center, and only three measurements compared.
The study measures agreement with the simulation, not whether patients were more satisfied.

Why this paper matters

The gap between what a patient is shown and what they receive is a recognized source of dissatisfaction, and this measures that gap directly. Closing it by 10 to 20 percent on key dimensions is a concrete result. Whether closer agreement translates into higher satisfaction is not tested.

Terms

Patient-specific guide: A printed template made from an individual patient's own imaging.
Virtual simulation: A computer-generated image of the predicted surgical result.
Intraclass correlation coefficient: A statistic measuring agreement between two sets of measurements.
Tip projection: How far the tip stands out from the face.
Nasolabial angle: The angle between the base of the nose and the upper lip.

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

From the abstract

“A practical application of three-dimensional printing technology has been considered a difficult area in rhinoplasty. However, the patient-specific three-dimensionally printed rhinoplasty guide based on the simulation program the authors developed could be a solution for minimizing the gap between simulation and…”

Excerpt; the full abstract is on PubMed.