Complications Secondary to Nonsurgical Rhinoplasty: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis

Objective: The popularity of nonsurgical rhinoplasty with injectable fillers continues to rise, and it is important to understand the scope of potential adverse outcomes. The purpose of our study is to determine the prevalence and types of adverse outcomes secondary to nonsurgical rhinoplasty. Data Sources: PubMed, Cochrane, Embase. Review Methods: The data sources were explored using the following combination of terms: ((“inject*” OR “nonsurgical” OR “augmentation” OR “filler”) AND “rhinoplast*”) AND (“complication” OR “adverse” OR “embol*”). Studies on human nonsurgical rhinoplasty using injectable fillers were included. A quantitative meta-analysis was performed on articles with low risk of bias. Results: The search yielded 37 publications for review, with 23 included cohort studies and 14 case reports with 8604 patients undergoing nonsurgical rhinoplasty with reported complications. The overall rate of adverse outcome across all cohort studies was 2.52%. The most commonly reported complications were bruising (1.58%) and hematoma (0.13%). While uncommon, there are several reports of major complications including 30 episodes of vessel occlusion (0.35%), 7 reports of skin necrosis (0.08%), 8 reports of vision loss (0.09%), and 6 reports of infection (0.07%). Conclusion: Overall, nonsurgical rhinoplasty with injectable fillers is safe with low rates of complications. However, serious complications, such as vision loss, skin necrosis, and vessel occlusion, can occur. Further studies are needed to optimize delivery of injectable fillers in the nose to decrease the rate of adverse outcomes.