title: Skin-fat-graft: a simple tool for reconstruction of small deep defects of the nose.
abstract: Small deep defects of the nose after resection of benign or malignant skin tumors are a common challenge in facial plastic surgery daily routine. The use of local flaps has several disadvantages for what reason they are a minor or no option especially in certain localizations in the lower third of the nose. Many elder patients suffer from comorbidities where complex more-staged reconstructional procedures drop out. We present a technique of nasal defect closure with a skin-fat composite graft. Between April 2010 and July 2013, we treated 42 patients with a total of 46 skin-fat-grafts to the nose. We reevaluated the esthetic and functional outcome in a retrospective analysis. In 80% of the cases, the results were rated excellent to satisfactory, 20% fair to poor. Reasons for worse validation were color and contour differences of grafts and surrounding tissue as well as alar retraction in very few cases. Nevertheless, we consider skin-fat-grafts to be a useful tool in single-layer nasal reconstruction in defects of smaller size.
authors.affiliation: Department of Facial Plastic Surgery, Centre of Plastic Surgery, Marienhospital Stuttgart, Stuttgart, Germany.
authors.forename: Christian
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Kreutzer
authors.affiliation: Department of Facial Plastic Surgery, Centre of Plastic Surgery, Marienhospital Stuttgart, Stuttgart, Germany.
authors.forename: Henning Freiherr
authors.initials: HF
authors.lastname: von Gregory
authors.affiliation: Department of Facial Plastic Surgery, Centre of Plastic Surgery, Marienhospital Stuttgart, Stuttgart, Germany.
authors.forename: Helmut
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Fischer
mesh_terms: D000273:Adipose Tissue / Q000637:transplantation*; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009666:Nose / Q000601:surgery*; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012225:Rhinoplasty / Q000379:methods*; D016038:Skin Transplantation; D055815:Young Adult