Shuttle Lifting of the Nose: A Minimally Invasive Approach for Nose Reshaping
Published in Aesthetic Surgery Journal, Volume 30, Issue 2, March 2010, Pages 176–183
Kemal Tunç Tiryaki, MD
Background: Suspension sutures are commonly used in numerous cosmetic surgical procedures. Several authors have described the use of such sutures as a part of classical rhinoplasty. On the other hand, it is not uncommon to see patients seeking nasal surgery for only a minimal hump deformity combined with an underrotated, underprojecting tip, which does not necessarily require all components of rhinoplasty. With the benefit of the suture suspension technique described here, such simple tip deformities can be reshaped percutaneously via minimal incisions.
Objective: In this study, the author describes an original technique based on the philosophy of vertical suspension lifts, achieving the suspension of the nasal tip with a percutaneous purse-string suture applied through small access punctures.
Patients and Methods: Between December 2005 and December 2008, 86 patients were selected to undergo rhinoplasty using the author’s shuttle lifting technique. The procedure was performed with a double-sided needle or shuttle, smoothly anchoring the lower lateral cartilages in a vertical direction to the glabellar periosteum, excluding the skin envelope.
Results: Mean follow-up was 13 months, with a range of eight to 24 months. Outcomes were satisfactory in all but 12 cases, of which seven found the result inadequate; two of those patients underwent a definitive rhinoplasty operation. Five patients requested that the suture be detached because of an overexaggerated appearance. Operative time was less than 15 minutes in all patients, with an uneventful rapid recovery.
Conclusions: As a minimally invasive nasal reshaping procedure, shuttle lifting is a good choice to achieve long-lasting, satisfactory results in selected patients with minimal hump deformity and an underrotated tip. The significance of this technique lies in the fact that it is one of very few office-based minimally invasive alternatives for aesthetic nasal surgery, with a recovery period of two to three days.
Plastic surgeons are facing increasing pressure from patients to simplify their procedures, such as minimizing the scar or reducing the operation time and recovery period. In some areas of aesthetic surgery, we have noninvasive alternatives such as botulinum toxin injections, commercially available soft tissue fillers, or suspension sutures to lift the ptotic tissue. Interestingly, aesthetic nasal surgery is one of the fields in which the minimally invasive options are few.
However, some patients asking for nasal surgery do not necessarily need a standard aesthetic rhinoplasty procedure. In some cases, refinement in nasal tip projection and rotation is enough to achieve satisfactory nasal harmony and aesthetics. In carefully selected patients who do not have a very prominent hump, too wide a nasal base, or noteworthy bony nasal deviation (namely, no serious complaints about the bony part of the nose), slight improvements in the projection of the cartilaginous tip and some cephalic rotation might create a significant change in appearance.
There are many descriptions of suture suspension techniques, mainly used in general aesthetic surgery to lift the sagging tissues back to their desired position. In rhinoplasty, the substantial majority of methods employ one or more suture techniques to reshape the nasal tip area. Likewise, there are numerous techniques in the literature describing how to improve tip rotation and projection via the caudal septum as a pillar for anchoring. However, all of these techniques have been proposed as a step of contemporary rhinoplasty; thus, none of them can rightfully be called a minimally invasive procedure for the correction of nasal tip deformities.
Herein, we describe a simple, office-based procedure that can be performed under local anesthesia in a matter of minutes with virtually no downtime and also can be combined with any other minimally invasive procedure. Our technique allows the surgeon to rotate the nasal tip over the hump, achieving suspension of the nasal tip with a percutaneous purse-string suture through a small access puncture made on the lateral nasal wall. This is undertaken with a double-sided needle or shuttle, smoothly anchoring the lower lateral cartilages (LLC) in a vertical direction to the glabellar periosteum, thus masking the prominence of the nasal septum and producing a limited refinement of the interdomal distance, which in turn satisfies the patient by means of simplicity and efficacy.
The described double-sided needle, characterized by two sharpened ends with a centrally or eccentrically placed eye for the chosen surgical thread, works in both directions, thereby enabling the surgeon to smoothly stitch the subcutaneous tissues without drawing the skin (Figure 1). This device was first described by Wilson, and its patent application was made in 1986, but it was widely popularized by Sulamanidze. The device is actually a surgical alteration of the conventional shuttle, a spindle-shaped device holding the thread in tatting, knotting, or netting, which is used in weaving to carry the thread back and forth between the warp threads. According to its historical role, the technique is named shuttle suspension, a term that describes the concept of the intervention.
Figure 1 - The traditional shuttle (A) and its surgical alteration (B).
Patients and Methods
The author (KTT) successfully performed a minimally invasive rhinoplasty with the shuttle suspension technique in 86 carefully selected patients between December 2005 and December 2008, with an eight- to 24-month follow-up. Patient ages ranged from 21 to 62 years. All of the patients elected not to undergo any aesthetic nasal surgery but were requesting a slight improvement of their nasal shape. Five of the patients were secondary rhinoplasty patients.
Surgical Technique
Before the procedure, the midline and the most prominent spot of the nasal domes were marked, and the nasal dorsum and caudal septum were infiltrated with local anesthetic-adrenalin solution. After five to 10 minutes, a unilateral transfixion incision was made and the overlying dorsal nasal skin was undermined with delicate scissors up to the glabella. The junction between the upper and lower cartilages, as well as the space between medial crurae, was also dissected. With a No. 15 blade, another 2-mm stab incision was made on the lateral nasal wall, 5 mm medial to the medial canthus, possibly in an existing frown-line. This incision could be made on the right or left side, depending on the surgeon’s preference. A curved, double-sided needle with a free 3-0 polypropylene thread attached at its middle portion was introduced horizontally to the subcutaneous tissue and stitched through the glabellar periosteum. The needle was pushed along its traced outline; it was extracted from the skin only partially at the other side of the glabella. Following the same entry stitch by the opposite sharp end, the needle was pushed vertically down toward the tip in a subcutaneous plane, partially exiting through the skin overlying the most prominent part of the ipsilateral LLC. Turning back horizontally, the needle was then inserted symmetrically through both LLC; the final exit stitch was carried out vertically upward, in the direction of the entry stitch through the initial incision. The LLC were then anchored to the glabellar periosteum using both ends of the thread (Figure 2). This provided a correction of the tip projection and rotation, as well as a shortening of the nasal length to a desired level, masking the prominence of even heavy nasal humps without any humpectomy or rasping (Figure 3). In cases where the surgeon needs extra tip projection or a strong opposing force from the upper lateral cartilage (ULC) push, it is useful to dissect between the medial crurae and suture them to the septum percutaneously at a higher position in a tongue-in-groove manner with a 3-0 absorbable suture. Another way to reduce the ULC resistance is a simple dissection between the upper and lower cartilages. A video of the procedure can be found online
Figure 2 - Surgical steps of the procedure. (A, B) A curved, double-sided needle with a free 3/0 polypropylene thread attached at its middle portion is introduced horizontally to the subcutaneous tissue and stitched through the glabellar periosteum. The needle is pushed along its traced outline; it is extracted from the skin only partially at the other side of the glabella (C). Following the same entry stitch by the opposite sharp end, the needle is pushed vertically down toward the tip in a subcutaneous plane, partially exiting through the skin overlying the most prominent part of the ipsilateral lower lateral cartilage (LLC) (D). Turning back horizontally, the needle is then inserted symmetrically through both LLC (E); the final exit stitch is carried out vertically upward, in the direction of the entry stitch through the initial incision (F). The LLC are then anchored to the glabellar periosteum using both ends of the thread.
Figure 3 - (A) A 24-year-old woman who presented with a heavy nasal hump. (B) The masking effect of the suspension suture is shown immediately postoperatively. Minimally invasive rhinoplasty with the shuttle lifting technique.
The author’s technique of “shuttle lifting” is shown, in which suspension of the nasal tip is achieved with a percutaneous purse-string suture applied through small access punctures.
Intraoperatively, the magnitude of change and the exact effect can be determined by observing the rotation of the tip as the suture is tightened This is a crucial point at which the amount of tip rotation and projection should be evaluated. A slight overcorrection is suggested in all cases. If the septum was too long, a caudal septal resection was performed simultaneously through the transfixion incision. The transfixion incision was then closed with an absorbable suture, whereas the glabellar puncture was covered with steristrips. The nose was taped for three to four days postoperatively at night, and each patient was instructed to apply the same tape for three weeks.
Results
The results were satisfactory in all but 12 of the 86 cases based on patient satsifacation surveys. Seven patients found the results inadequate and two of those patients underwent normal rhinoplasty afterward. Five patients found the result overcorrected and the suspension suture was removed. In the first four cases, the undermining of the dorsum was not performed before the suspension. During short-term follow-up, the desired results were not found to be sustainable and the procedures were renewed with undermining of the dorsal skin in order to achieve subdermal fibrosis. The tip support suture between the caudal septum and medial crurae was applied in 62 patients.
The suspension suture was also extraordinarily effective in secondary rhinoplasty patients. After an initial loss of the overcorrected projection and rotation, the results were durable throughout follow-up. The operation duration was under 15 minutes in all of the cases. Our longest follow-up was 24 months, during which we observed that the final outcome appeared after the third month and did not undergo any change afterward. We have not seen any complications related to the permanent suture, such as palpability or visibility through the skin.
Discussion
In an era when the motto “Less is more” is so popular, nasal aesthetic problems are one of the few fields in which we are not able to offer our patients an acceptable, minimally invasive alternative. Not every patient requires all of the integral parts of a traditional rhinoplasty operation to address their concerns—in fact, a significant number of them do not. Furthermore, we have patients who are incapable of arranging their daily programs to accommodate the required recovery period or who do not wish to undergo such a significant operation because of their associated health problems or anxiety over an irreversible change in their facial characteristics. The main objective of the technique we describe is to provide patients with a simple method for nose reshaping, which can be performed in the office under local anesthesia in less than 15 minutes and is therefore comparable with ttoxin treatments or fillers in the patient’s mind.
The description of suture techniques as an integral part of rhinoplasty is very well established in the literature.9,10 Joseph10 used sutures to secure the nasal tip to the caudal septum and, over the years, a great number of other suture techniques have been proposed.3-5,10-14 However, all of these techniques have been suggested as a part of traditional rhinoplasty and none of them was described as a minimally invasive, stand-alone procedure for nasal correction. For selected patients, however, our method can be proposed as a simple, office-based procedure that can be performed under local anesthesia in a matter of minutes with virtually no downtime. This procedure does not jeopardize the key anatomic structures of the nose, so there is no risk of skin irregularities related to LLC excision or internal valve problems related to ULC surgery.15,16
We selected patients who did not have significant problems with their bony nasal construction, including five patients who had a previous rhinoplasty operation with inadequate tip rotation and projection. Inadequate tip projection is one of the most common problems after rhinoplasty and securing the nasal tip has become a challenging problem in nasal surgery.17,18 Instead of performing another nasal surgery to correct slight postoperative problems, the shuttle method can, in our experience, achieve the greater satisfaction in secondary rhinoplasty patients. Moreover, secondary problems related to the aging process (like increased nasal length) can be dealt with very easily, safely, and quickly in conjunction with facial rejuvenation operations such as fat injections, other suspensions, or facelift operations. In fact, older patients benefit the most, with the least loss of initial rotation, probably because of the lack of a strong opposing force (Figure 4).
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Figure 4 - (A, C) A 58-year-old woman who presented with concerns about facial aging. (B, D) One year after blepharoplasty, as well as neck and midface suspensions, including nasal suspension.
Nasal tip width is also one of the important features of facial aesthetic harmony. Because of the circular shape of the suture, which is passed through both LLC, tightening of the knot results in a medial shift of the nasal cartilages, and as such, we can achieve a slight narrowing of the tip area. The caudal part of the loop suspension serves as a traditional interdomal suture, only performed percutaneously.
To achieve similar results, a single caudal septal suspension suture can be placed, but in some cases at the cost of a retracted columella. By performing a dorsal suspension for the tip first, it is easier to judge the degree of the rotation and then a septocolumellar suture can be placed accordingly, without the risk of columellar retraction. On the other hand, in patients with inadequate nasal projection, using columellar-septal sutures by dissecting between the medial crurae and suturing them to the septum at a higher position in a tongue-in-groove manner does help to achieve an extra 1- to 2-mm projection and might also be helpful for stability in the long-term outcome. If the septum is too long, a small segment from the anterocaudal portion can be excised to reduce the opposing force created by the septal cartilage push.15 To further diminish the opposing effect of the existing structures, especially the upper cartilages, it is advantageous to reversely dissect between upper and lower cartilages, so that a space is created for cartilaginous overlapping.
In patients with very deep nasofrontal junctions, the suspension knot can be used as filler in the glabellar area to mask the dorsal prominence. The dorsal dissection is an important part of this procedure and is performed to achieve fibrosis of the subcutaneous tissue, to create a sustainable fixation. The rapid production of scar tissue in the interface of the skin acts as a biological glue that maintains the new tip position over time (Figure 5).13,14 According to our experience, it takes a minimum of three to four weeks to achieve a strong subcutaneous fibrosis. The suspension, if detached earlier than this period, might be reversible, which may be seen as an advantage of this procedure by the patients. As a continuation of this study, it might be beneficial to measure the nasal length and the nasolabial angle pre- and postoperatively at different times, so that we can have data by which to precisely judge the necessary overcorrection.
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Figure 5 - (A, C) A 26-year-old woman who presented with aesthetic concerns about her nose. (B, D) One year after nasal suspension.
Conclusion
The shuttle lift described herein is one of very few minimally invasive alternatives for aesthetic nasal tip surgery. For selected patients, our method can be used as a simple, office-based procedure that can be performed under local anesthesia without any significant morbidity, a very high patient satisfaction, and a recovery period of only two to three days. The suspension suture serves as an internal splint, and the permanent result is attributable to tissue fibrosis. The reversibility of the result, at least for a short period of time, is also appealing to patients who are uncertain about the outcome of nasal surgery. It is important to keep in mind that there are three crucial steps for a durable and satisfactory outcome: undermining of the dorsal skin, a slight overcorrection of the tip, and (in most cases) a reverse separation of the medial crurae and the placement of a percutaneous septocolumellar suture.
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