Cosmetic Augmentation Rhinoplasty for East Asians

Suh MK.

What this paper says

A review of augmentation techniques for East Asian rhinoplasty, covering 3D printed implants, folded dermal grafts, multilayered rib cartilage, and derotation grafts as an alternative to the septal extension graft.

Overview

The article addresses raising the nasal bridge and lengthening the nose in East Asian patients. The author states symmetric pocket formation and careful implant carving are the most critical elements when using an implant on the bridge. Several graft alternatives to implants are then reviewed.

Sections of note

Review article; the abstract reports no patient numbers, no outcomes, no complication rates and no follow up.
Symmetric pocket formation and meticulous implant carving are named the most critical parts of implant based dorsal augmentation.
Three dimensional printed nasal implants are said to fit the bridge contour exactly, reducing the chance of deviation and malposition.
A vertically oriented folded dermal graft technique is stated to avoid the high resorption rate of conventional dermofat grafts.
A multilayered rib cartilage technique for the bridge is stated to minimize warping and the difficulty of carving.
A derotation graft is said to allow a supple and movable tip while achieving enough lengthening.
The septal extension graft is noted as the most commonly performed procedure for correcting a short nose.

What it means for a patient

Implants remain common in this practice, and the review focuses on how to reduce their known failure modes rather than avoiding them.
Resorption of dermofat, warping of rib cartilage, and a stiff tip after a septal extension graft are the three problems these alternatives target.
No rates are given for any of these problems or for the claimed improvements.
This is expert opinion without comparative data.

Why this paper matters

Augmentation rhinoplasty is the dominant form of the operation across East Asia and its long term failures are material driven. This review maps each material to its characteristic problem and to a proposed workaround. None of the proposed solutions is compared against the standard in measured terms here.

Terms

Augmentation rhinoplasty: surgery that builds the nose up rather than reducing it.
Dorsal augmentation: raising the height of the nasal bridge.
Dermofat graft: a graft of deep skin layer with attached fat.
Derotation graft: a graft that rotates the tip downward to lengthen a short nose.
Septal extension graft: cartilage attached to the septum to set tip position.
Warping: gradual bending of a cartilage graft after surgery.

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

From the abstract

“Symmetric pocket formation and meticulous implant carving are the most critical parts of nasal dorsal augmentation using implants. Innovative three-dimensional printed nasal implants can exactly fit the nasal dorsal contour, decreasing the chance of deviation and malpositioning. Vertically oriented folded dermal graft…”

Excerpt; the full abstract is on PubMed.