MADRID (AFP) — Princess Letizia, the wife of the heir to the Spanish throne, Crown Prince Felipe, had surgery on her nose last week to fix a breathing problem, the Royal Palace said Friday.
The septorhinoplasty -- an operation to straighten the cartilage and bone that separates the nose into two sides -- was carried out by palace medical staff to fix a deviated septum, it said.
Patients with a deviated septum -- the wall between the left and right sides of the nose -- find that one side of their nose is wider than normal and one is narrower.
The consequences of a deviated septum can range from a mild impact on breathing to a complete lack of function of one or both nostrils.
Even if there is little or no breathing disturbances, a deviated septum can make the exterior bridge of the nose look crooked.
Princess Letizia, 35, was included in Vanity Fair magazine's latest yearly International Best-Dressed List along with French First Lady Carla Bruni and Kate Middleton, the girlfriend of Britain's Prince William.
Her first public engagement since the surgery came Thursday when she visited some of the 19 survivors of a Spanish airliner crash along with her husband at a Madrid hospital.
The Spanair plane bound for Spain's Canary Islands crashed Wednesday shortly after take-off from Madrid airport, killing 153 people.
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