Complications in Rhinoplasty: A Literature Review and Comparison with a Survey of Consent Forms

Overview

Informed consent for rhinoplasty is difficult because the operation has many possible complications. This study identified complication rates from the published literature, catalogued what consent forms actually cover, and compared the two directly.

Sections of note

• Literature review of rhinoplasty articles from January 2000 to November 2017 with at least 100 patients, to identify complications and their rates.
• A comprehensive online search identified rhinoplasty consent forms and their topics.
• 117 articles were included, reporting 36 different complications.
• 24 consent forms were evaluated, yielding 80 different topics.
• Common complications in the literature: skin problems such as acne 18.3 percent, numbness 16.7 percent, hospital revisit 6.5 percent, primary source revision rate 5.3 percent, dissatisfaction 5.0 percent.
• Most commonly covered consent topics: infection 100 percent, bleeding 95.8 percent, scarring 95.8 percent.
• Unsatisfactory results were covered in 83.3 percent of forms and need for revision in 75.0 percent, despite both being in the top five complications reported.

What it means for a patient

• The most frequent problems reported in studies are skin changes and numbness, not the infection and bleeding that consent forms emphasize.
• One in four consent forms did not mention the possibility of needing a revision operation.
• Published revision rates in this analysis were around 5.3 percent and dissatisfaction 5.0 percent.
• Limits: 24 consent forms found online, and complication rates pooled from studies of varying design and definition.

Why this paper matters

Consent forms shape what patients expect, and this shows a mismatch between what they emphasize and what actually happens most often. Dissatisfaction and revision are the outcomes patients care about and the ones most often omitted. The analysis describes the gap without testing whether closing it changes expectations.

Terms

• Informed consent: The process of ensuring a patient understands the risks before agreeing to surgery.
• Complication rate: The proportion of patients experiencing a given adverse event.
• Revision rate: The proportion of patients needing a further operation.
• Consent form: The document listing risks a patient signs before surgery.
• Literature review: A structured survey of what has been published on a topic.