Nasal defects are common deformities of facial tissue defects in clinic, mainly repaired by flaps at present. To achieve successful repair, the selection of different flaps must consider the location, the layers involved, the size of the defect and the condition of the patients. After reviewing the literature published at home and abroad in recent years, the commonly used flaps were summarized into four types in this paper: local flap, adjacent flap, composite tissue flap and free flap. The indications, advantages, disadvantages and the new progress of various flaps in each type were reviewed.