Abstract
Polymethyl-methacrylate(PMMA; Artecoll$^{(R)}$) microspheres suspended 1 : 3 in a 3.5% collagen solution has been used as an injectable implant for long lasting correction of wrinkles and minor skin defects. The patients with mandibular prognathism have increased necessity for nasal augmentation. Usually these patients usually get an additional rhinoplasty after orthognathic surgery. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the result of PMMA injection for nasal ridge augmentation simultaneously with the orthognathic surgery. PMMAs were injected to the nasal dorsum of 13 patients with mandibular prognathism to augment the nasal ridge at the end of the orthognathic surgery. The cephalometric X-ray and clinical facial photograph were taken at 2, 4 and 6 months after operation. Using S-N line, we calculated the change of soft tisuue on the nasal ridge and also investigated the degree of patients satisfaction at 6 months after operation. Most of the patients were satisfied with their nasal ridge height status from moderate to good degree. The average amount of nasal ridge augmentation was $1.4{\pm}0.5$ mm immediately after operation, $1.2{\pm}0.4$ mm at 2 months after operation. The postoperative nasal ridge height seemed to be remained stable after 2 months. Intraoperative PMMA injection is considered to be simple and effective technique which can be used for the minor augmentation of nasal ridge in the orthognathic patients.
