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Topic: EuRePS Meeting 2015: best five papers

Closed rhinoplasty: effects and changes

on voice - a preliminary report

Giuseppe Guarro, Romano Maffia, Barbara Rasile, Carmine Alfano

Department of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, University of Perugia, 06156 Perugia, Italy.
Address for correspondence: Dr. Giuseppe Guarro, Department of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, University of Perugia, S. Andrea
delle Fratte, 06156 Perugia, Italy. E-mail: giuseppeguarro@email.it

ABSTRACT
Aim: Effects of rhinoplasty were already studied from many points of view: otherwise poor is
scientific production focused on changes of voice after rhinoplasty. This preliminary study analyzed
objectively and subjectively these potential effects on 19 patients who underwent exclusively
closed rhinoplasty. Methods: This preliminary evaluation was conducted from September 2012 to
May 2013 and 19 patients have undergone primary rhinoplasty with exclusively closed approach
(7 males, 12 females). All patients were evaluated before and 6 months after surgery. Each of
them answered to a questionnaire (Voice Handicap Index Score) and the voice was recorded for
spectrographic analysis: this system allowed to perform the measurement of the intensity and
frequency of vowels (“A” and “E”) and nasal consonants (“N” and “M”) before and after surgery.
Data were analysed with the Mann-Whitney test. Results: Sixteen patients showed statistically
significant differences after surgery. It was detected in 69% of cases an increased frequency of
emission of the consonant sounds (P = 0.046), while in 74% of cases the same phenomenon was
noticed for vowel sounds (P = 0.048). Conclusion: Many patients who undergo rhinoplasty think
that the intervention only leads to anatomical changes and improvement of respiratory function.
The surgeon should instead accurately inform patients about the potential effects on the voice.
This preliminary study reveals the significant effects of closed rhinoplasty on the human voice.

Key words:
Rhinoplasty; voice; handicap; score; spectrogram

[5]
INTRODUCTION voices can feel the relevance of these consequences.
We conducted a preliminary evaluation to study these
Closed rhinoplasty is nowadays one of the most requested potential effects, considering that changes on the size of
aesthetic surgeries in occident. Many effects of this kind nasal cavity may let airflow resistance grow. We decided
[6]
of procedure have already been studied from several to study patients who underwent a surgical procedure
points of view, otherwise in literature we found few like closed rhinoplasty, because it allows to solve many
works about the impact of exclusively closed rhinoplasty respiratory disfunctions, but it is also a widely requested
on individual and technical features of voice. [1-3] The aesthetic procedure. A preliminary evaluation, conducted
impact of surgery on the anatomy of the nasal cavity, the
true resonance box of the phonatory system, was not
deeply studied. Patients who use professionally their This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative
[4]
Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 License, which allows
others to remix, tweak and build upon the work non-commercially, as long as the
Access this article online author is credited and the new creations are licensed under the identical terms.
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How to cite this article: Guarro G, Maffia R, Rasile B, Alfano
C. Closed rhinoplasty: effects and changes on voice - a preliminary
DOI: report. Plast Aesthet Res 2016;3:231-4.
10.20517/2347-9264.2015.80
Received: 28-07-2015; Accepted: 08-12-2015
© 2016 Plastic and Aesthetic Research | Published by OAE Publishing Inc. 231