OBJECTIVETo observe the layers and vascular structures of the soft tissue (including the skin) in the inferior part of external nose (nasal inferior portion) for providing the essential morphological data used for the correction of the bulbous nose and the tip of nose with thick skin.

METHODSUnder a light microscope, the density of microangium (vascular area/frame area) in each layer was measured with an image analyzer.

RESULTSThe stained soft tissue in the nasal inferior portion could be definitely divided into 5 layers: epidermis, dermis, superficial fascia, fibromuscular layer and perichondrium. According to the density of microangium, the sequence of these layers was: perichondrium, reticular layer, fibromuscular layer, sub-papillary layer, superficial fascia and papillary layer.

CONCLUSIONSThe soft tissue in the nasal inferior portion consists of 5 layers, which is similar to the structure of the face and neck. Both the total thickness of these 5 layers and the thickness of the dermis are much thicker than those of the Caucasus', and suit to rhinoplasty for bulbous nose According to the results of vascular density analysis, the skin thinning procedure in the rhinoplasty for bulbous nose should start from the superficial fascia firstly, then the fibromuscular layer.