Dragana Mitar and her eighth rhinoplasty: what she said herself

Doctors treated it for a long time, but because of that the tissue healed oddly in one spot… Last time they took cartilage from my rib, this time from my ear.”) She told Blic this directly, right after the procedure.

That is all this article relies on. Mitar did not name the clinic or the surgeon who performed any of her operations, so this article does not name or guess at either. Where the text below explains how rhinoplasty and revision surgery work, it describes the procedures in general, not her treatment.

She described a sequence of procedures, a specific complication (an infection after her seventh operation) and a concrete consequence of it (a dent in the tissue that required a further, eighth operation to address), plus a change in cartilage source from rib to ear. Talking about this openly, rather than only showing a finished result, gives a far more realistic picture of what revision surgery actually involves: it is usually more complex than a first operation, requires solving a specific problem left by prior surgery, and does not guarantee the same timeline or outcome as an uncomplicated primary case.

Revision surgery is technically harder because the surgeon is working with scar tissue and a cartilage framework that has already been altered, which is why it often needs a different source of cartilage.

Cartilage for a graft can be taken from the nasal septum, the ear or a rib, depending on how much usable material is available and what the specific correction needs — which is exactly the kind of decision Mitar described changing between her two most recent operations.

• Timing matters. Surgeons usually wait at least 12 months after the previous operation so that swelling and scar tissue have fully settled before planning a correction.
• A full health and infection check is required, particularly when, like in Mitar's case, a previous complication involved infection.
• The cartilage source is planned in advance, based on imaging and an examination of what remains usable in the nose itself.
• Contraindications include active infection, uncontrolled chronic disease, pregnancy and breastfeeding, and blood-clotting disorders.

To be clear: City Medical Centre has no connection with Dragana Mitar or her treatment. Her story is simply a recent example of someone who spoke openly about a complicated revision surgery.