Pros of autologous costal cartilage: least absorption and firm, low possibility of inflammation Cons: chest wall incision scar, general anesthesia, risk of pneumothorax from harvesting costal cartilage (the thinner you are, the higher the risk, and I’m quite thin), long surgery time, high surgery cost
Pros of donated costal cartilage: lower cost, shorter surgery time, sedation anesthesia possible Cons: higher possibility of absorption (the degree varies from person to person)
Just looking at it this way, donated costal cartilage seems overwhelmingly better, but I don’t want to open my nose twice Papers say there isn’t much difference in the degree of inflammation between autologous costal cartilage and donated costal cartilage, but I still think using something from my own body is much safer long-term, so I’m conflicted.
I was firmly on the autologous costal cartilage side, but with general anesthesia the surgery time is almost twice as long, and there are a lot of pre-op tests like blood tests, ECG, chest X-ray, etc., plus the cost difference is around 2 million won. So I’m also thinking maybe if it’s going to be like this, I should just use donated costal cartilage and, if it gets absorbed a lot, get revision surgery later..
As for using other cartilage, my septal cartilage is too small so I can’t use it, and I think ear cartilage definitely causes the nasal tip to drop, so I excluded it from the start.