What are rhinoplasty cartilage grafts?

Increasingly common in rhinoplasty, grafts are pieces of tissue taken out of the body, altered, and then replaced. Cartilage grafts can be used to build up or straighten sections of the nose or to replace missing cartilage (which usually results from a prior, overzealous rhinoplasty). Sometimes so much cartilage or bone is missing that rib cartilage or bone from the skull must be used to help make a properly shaped nose.

More commonly, grafts are taken from other cartilage in the nose. If not enough is present, cartilage can be taken from the ears. The surgeon shapes the cartilage and sews pieces together to create a perfectly shaped graft -- a perilous and tedious process. Pieces of cartilage smaller than matchsticks must be sewn together in a precise order. The surgeon gets no more than two chances to make it perfect; after that, the cartilage cracks and becomes useless. This is one of the reasons many plastic surgeons don't perform rhinoplasties.