Severe facial dermatitis as a late complication of aesthetic rhinoplasty; a case report

We are reporting an unexpected, severe allergic contact dermatitis of the face, in a young female, appearing one month following aesthetic rhinoplasty. She failed to respond to ordinary treatments for dermatitis. We did standard battery – including nitrofurazone, tincture of benzoin and hydrocortisone – patch test for the patient that showed sensitivity to benzoin and corticosteroid.In summary we report a case of a severe allergic contact dermatitis of the face, in a 21-year-old girl who underwent corrective aesthetic rhinoplasty, appearing one month following surgical operation. We were unable to find a similar report in the medical literature.Cutaneous problems after rhinoplasty are usually early, minor, and transient [1]. Most common being contact dermatitis, appearing as rashes or pustules with or without allergic reactions from the tape which might have been used with tincture of benzoin or a preparation containing gum mastic [2,3]. These substances are frequently used as a dressing support and to increase adhesive strength of the tape. The tape can cause necrosis, a major complication, if applied too tightly [1,4]. Patients with acne might find their condition temporarily worse just after rhinoplasty as a result of the local effect of the dressing or the systemic response to the operation [4].Late cutaneous complications are limited to permanent redness and telangiectasias of the nasal skin in some patients with a diathesis toward capillary telangiectasias [1,4].We report a severe dermatitis of the nose and adjacent skin areas starting one month after aesthetic rhinoplasty in an otherwise healthy young girl.A 21-year-old girl underwent corrective aesthetic rhinoplasty by endo-nasal technique in September 2000. She was healthy with an apparently normal skin and no evidence of acne was seen (figure 1). Facial preparation was made by povidone iodine scrub. Neither autologus or heterologus tissues nor foreign materials were used as a transplant. Chromic catgut, vi