Medical Research: Emerging Concepts and Applications Vol. 5

The external appearance of the nose and the patency of the nasal airway are governed by the same osteocartilaginous framework, so that trauma, congenital anomalies, and even purely "functional" procedures on the septum routinely have consequences on both sides of that functional–aesthetic divide. This chapter examines three clinical situations from the practice of a maxillofacial surgery department in a Tunisian military teaching hospital that illustrate this interdependence: the combined functional and aesthetic evaluation of post-traumatic rhinoplasty using surgeon- and patient-reported outcome measures; the surgical approach to a congenital dermoid cyst of the nasal dorsum through external rhinoplasty rather than the classical midline incision; and a prospective study identifying septal–upper lateral cartilage disarticulation as a risk factor for persistent nasal dorsum deviation after septoplasty. Taken together, these three original series argue for systematically incorporating an aesthetic dimension into the planning and outcome assessment of procedures traditionally considered purely reconstructive or functional, and for anticipating, rather than treating secondarily, the external consequences of internal nasal surgery.