See how rhinoplasty surgeons put on the dressing and cast after surgery is complete

Dr. Lamperti narrates an intra-operative video that shows how he puts on the rhinoplasty dressing and cast. He shows the various steps of dressing placement including placing skin adhesive, Telfa dressing, steri-strip tape and Aquaplast cast.

Video Transcript:

"This is Seattle facial plastic surgeon, Doctor Thomas Lamperti. Today I'm going to show you how we put on a rhinoplasty dressing and cast. The first step involves placing adhesive which allows the tape to stick better to the skin. Next, I put on a telfa dressing. This is a non-stick dressing that allows me to remove the dressing more easily in a week. Next, we're putting on steri-strip tape over the telfa. The goal of the tape is to keep down the skin swelling as much as possible. The tape also allows the skin to reseat against the underlying nasal structure as much as possible preventing any fluid or blood collection. Once the taping is complete we'll then cut to size the Aquaplast cast. Here we are with a sheet of the Aquaplast material which is basically a type of plastic. I cut it to the proper size for the patient. And we'll then place in some hot water which will temporarily soften the cast. We'll then be able to mold the material to the patient's nose. Then within a few seconds the cast then hardens and protects the nose from injury and also allows the bones to heal in the proper position that we've set them in. And you can see here that we have the Aquaplast in the hot water. You can see it slowly becoming more clear and that's showing us that it is becoming softer. When it is totally clear you can see that it is nice and moldable so we'll place it over the tape, stretch it into position and then (this is all in real time) you'll be able to see the plastic set and become white again. Then it will be quite hard and provide nice protection for the nose for the next week until we take off the cast in the office. And you can see already that the cast in hardening. It has become white again already. The only other part of the dressing is to put on a nasal dripper or mustache dressing to catch any nasal drainage for the first few days."