PRS-GO Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery Global Open · 2025

Pilot Study: Thread Rhinoplasty With Different Methods of Barbed Thread Implantation

Tamura T, Furuichi Y, Tamura T, Fuse T, Toma M, Okumura K, Teranishi H.

PubMed 40433226 Publisher (DOI)Free full text (PMC)

What this paper says

In six patients, placing barbed threads in the septum alone produced significantly greater changes in three nasal angles than placing them in both the septum and the bridge.

Overview

Thread rhinoplasty inserts barbed threads to reshape the nose without surgery, with short downtime and reported high satisfaction. Placement method is known to affect the result but the differences had not been quantified. The authors compared two placement methods using a three dimensional imaging analyzer in patients treated between February and May 2024.

Sections of note

Design: prospective observational study, 6 patients in two groups of three.
Group S: threads implanted in the nasal septum only. Group SD: threads in the septum plus the bridge.
Measurement used a VECTRA H2 three dimensional imaging analyzer.
No significant differences between groups in bridge length change, nostril wing length change, or the ratio between them.
Nasolabial angle change: 15 degrees in group S versus minus 1 in group SD. Nasofrontal angle: minus 3 versus 1.67. Nasofacial angle: 4 versus 1. All p less than 0.05.
Nasal jaw angle change did not differ, minus 4.3 in both groups.

What it means for a patient

Where the threads are placed determines what changes. Septum only placement rotated the tip upward substantially, while adding bridge threads did not.
The measured changes are angles rather than lengths, so the effect is on tip position rather than nose size.
Six patients split into two groups of three is extremely small, and statistical significance in such groups should be treated cautiously.
Limits: 6 patients, no control group, no stated follow up length, and no complication or durability data.

Why this paper matters

Thread lifting of the nose is offered widely with little published measurement, and placement varies between practitioners without agreed rationale. Quantifying the difference between two placements with three dimensional imaging is a first step. Six patients cannot establish which method suits which goal, and durability is unaddressed.

Terms

Thread rhinoplasty: reshaping the nose by inserting barbed threads without surgery.
Barbed thread: a suture with projections that grip tissue and hold it in position.
Nasolabial angle: the angle between the base of the nose and the upper lip.
Nasofrontal angle: the angle between the forehead and the bridge of the nose.
Nasofacial angle: the angle between the bridge of the nose and the plane of the face.
Three-dimensional imaging analyzer: a camera system capturing facial shape in depth for measurement.

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

Abstract

Background: Thread rhinoplasty is a minimally invasive procedure with short downtime and high patient satisfaction. Although it is known that the effectiveness of rhinoplasty varies depending on the method of thread placement, there have been no studies quantifying these differences. In this study, we analyzed the differences in the effectiveness of rhinoplasty depending on the method of thread implantation using a 3-dimensional imaging analyzer (VECTRA H2, Canfield Scientific).

Methods: This study was a prospective observation study. Six patients who underwent rhinoplasty using threads from February to May 2024 were divided into 2 groups according to the method of thread placement: nasal septum implantation group (group S) and nasal septum + nasal dorsum implantation group (group SD). The pre- and postoperative changes analyzed by VECTRAH2 were compared between the 2 groups.

Results: Nasal dorsal length change, nasal wing length change, and nasal wing length/nasal dorsal length ratio change were not significantly different between the two groups. The angular changes were as follows: nasolabial angle change (15 [8-23], -1 [-7 to 6], P < 0.05), nasal frontal angle change (-3 [-4 to -2], 1.67 [1-3], P < 0.05), nasal face angle change (4 [3-5], 1 [0-2], P < 0.05), and nasal jaw angle change (-4.3 [-5 to -3], -4.3 [-5 to -4], P > 0.05).

Conclusions: Thread rhinoplasty was found to have different postoperative effects depending on the method of thread implantation. It was suggested that it is possible to provide a procedure that meets the patient's wishes.

Abstract as indexed by PubMed; the article is open access (PubMed Central).