Template for Diced Cartilage with Platelet-Rich Fibrin (PRF) in Rhinoplasty: An Easy Solution for Millimetric Camouflage of the Full Dorsal Esthetic Unit

Overview

Visible irregularities along the bridge are a common complaint after rhinoplasty, so surgeons often lay a soft graft over the whole bridge to hide them. Diced cartilage set in platelet-rich fibrin, a gel made from the patient's own blood, is one recent way to build that layer. The abstract states no published method existed for making such a graft thin, malleable and reproducible to the millimeter. The senior author presents his template and his case series.

Sections of note

• Design: retrospective case series from a single surgeon.
• 54 cases operated between April 2018 and May 2022.
• Grafts were made from diced cartilage with injectable PRF and advanced PRF.
• Stated use: augmenting the bridge by 1 to 2 millimeters and lining the full dorsal aesthetic unit.
• Results were assessed at a minimum of six months after surgery.
• Reported outcomes are described as good aesthetic outcome with high reproducibility. No scores, measurements, complication rates or comparison group are given.

What it means for a patient

• The technique targets small bridge irregularities and small amounts of augmentation, not major reshaping.
• The graft uses the patient's own cartilage and own blood product, so it is not a synthetic implant.
• Limits are large: one surgeon, 54 cases, no control group, no numerical outcome measure, and results reported as the author's impression rather than by a validated scale or blinded review.

Why this paper matters

Diced cartilage wrapped in fascia or fibrin has become a standard way to camouflage the bridge, but the graft is usually hand made and varies between surgeons and between cases. A template addresses that consistency problem directly. Whether the templated graft resorbs less, feels better or looks better than a hand shaped one is untested here.

Terms

• Diced cartilage: cartilage cut into tiny pieces so it can be molded like a paste.
• Platelet-rich fibrin: a gel made by spinning the patient's own blood, used as a scaffold.
• Dorsal aesthetic unit: the bridge of the nose treated as one visual surface from root to tip.
• Camouflage graft: a soft layer placed to hide underlying bumps or edges.
• Case series: a report of consecutive patients treated one way, with no comparison group.