Nasal wall lateralization: a novel technique to improve nasal airway obstruction.

he nasal valve is the narrowest region of the nasal passage, nd the main, flow-limiting segment of the nasal cavity.1,2 ariations in the size and shape of the nasal cavity affect he rate and pattern of airflow and influence nasal function. t therefore seems likely that improved nasal patency may lleviate snoring and sleep-disordered breathing.3,4 Traditional surgical management of nasal obstruction has ocused on the correction of dynamic collapse, or dysfunction f the static nasal valve, or both. Procedures are aimed either o correct the laxity of the lateral nasal wall (through implants f cartilage or inferior displacement of the alar cartilage) or o expand the cross-sectional area of the nasal valve (by sepoplasty, inferior turbinectomy, spreader grafts, suspension f the nasal wall, and splay and butterfly grafts). However, o our knowledge, no particular technique has been specifially directed to the pyriform aperture. This is surprising as t is functionally a part of the nasal valve, and changes in its imensions can produce problems with nasal patency after esthetic rhinoplasty.5 The aim of this paper was to present a ew technique for the expansion of the nasal valve based on ateralisation of the nasal walls.