Pulled a blood clot from my nostril 10 days post rhinoplasty. Have I damaged long term results?

Question

I'm 10 days post-op internal rhinoplasty with no grafts/impants. There was a blood clot no deeper than the end of a q-tip, so I pulled it out with tweezers. No bleeding (to my knowledge) occurred and it didn't hurt. I can finally breathe from that nostril again, but now I'm really worried!

Randal Haworth, MD, FACS · Answer

Of course, you should always convey these issues to your  surgeon in the first place but pulling a clot out 11 days after your surgery  is  generally of no consequence.  Sometimes,  spontaneous bleeding from the nose can occur up to three weeks after the rhinoplasty which is generally self-limited. But the situation you describe  does not seem to fall in that category. The clot may represent some old blood or delayed bleeding from work that was done within the nose and you indeed may encounter more of these before it stops.

Oakley Smith, MD, FRCSC · Answer

A nose usually oozes blood after rhinoplasty. This can go on for a number of days although most have dried up within a week. I believe patients should clean their nose frequently after surgery to prevent the build up of crusts. So removing  blood clot 10 days after surgery is fine. With no bleeding, there has been no trauma. U are good to go.

John Harbison, MD · Answer

Lauria8,        I would say if there was no bleeding, and no pain associated with the blood clot that there is likely not much to worry about.  It is very common to develop blood clots, sometimes quite large, after rhinoplasty operations.  Additionally the intranasal incision are largely healed by 10 days after the surgery.  I recommend to my patients keeping tweezers and other foreign bodies out of there, and using regular, gentle nasal saline to help keep the nose moist and clean.  Good luck on the rest of your recover.

Pulled a blood clot from my nostril 10 days post rhinoplasty. Have I damaged long term results?

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Pulled a blood clot from my nostril 10 days post rhinoplasty. Have I damaged long term results?

Answers (3)

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Everything you need to know about Rhinoplasty

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