This Article  • Full text  • PDF  • CME Course for This Article  • Reply to article  • Send to a friend  • Save in My Folder  • Save to citation manager  • Permissions  Citing Articles  • Contact me when this article is cited  Related Content  • Similar articles in this journal  Topic Collections  • General Rhinology  • Alert me on articles by topic  Social Bookmarking   What's this?

Microscopic and Macroscopic Effects on Nasal Mucosa

Francesco-Antonio Salzano, Professor; Renzo Mora, MD; Massimo Dellepiane, MD; Illias Zannis, MD; Giovanni Salzano, MD; Eva Moran, MD; Angelo Salami, Professor

Arch Otolaryngol Head Neck Surg. 2009;135(8):752-758.

Objective  To compare the microscopic and macroscopic effects of radiofrequency, high-frequency, and electrocautery therapies with partial inferior turbinotomy in the treatment of nasal obstruction caused by inferior turbinate hypertrophy.

Design  Nonrandomized controlled trial.

Setting  Department of Otolaryngology–Head and Neck Surgery, University of Genoa.

Patients  The study included 80 patients affected by nasal obstruction from hypertrophied inferior turbinates.

Interventions  Homogeneous patient groups A, B, C, and D underwent radiofrequency, high-frequency, and electrocautery treatments and partial inferior turbinotomy, respectively, to surgically reduce hypertrophied inferior turbinates.

Main Outcomes Measures  Prior to surgery and at 7-day and 2-month follow-up evaluations, patients' outcomes were assessed via visual analogue scale, nasal endoscopy, nasal monofilament test, nasal mucociliary transport time (NMTT), anterior active rhinomanometry, and histologic examination of microbiopsy specimens from the inferior turbinate mucosa.

Results  Compared with groups A, B, and C 2 months after surgery, group D showed a lower subjective assessment of symptoms score, normal NMTT (vs an increase in all other groups), lower stimulus to trigger a touch response at monofilament test (vs hyposensitivity in the other groups), and absence of histologic changes.

Conclusions  To our knowledge, no one has previously performed comparative studies to conclusively demonstrate which surgical technique is ideal. Our results show that the partial inferior nasal turbinotomy is the best method of treatment because it most effectively maintains satisfactory nasal physiologic integrity without damaging nasal mucosa or underlying nerves.

Author Affiliations: Department of Otolaryngology–Head and Neck Surgery, University of Palermo, Palermo, Italy (Professor F.-A. Salzano); Departments of Otolaryngology–Head and Neck Surgery (Drs Mora, Dellepiane, and Zannis and Professor Salami) and Internal Medicine (Dr Moran), University of Genoa, Genoa, Italy; and University of Naples "Federico II," Naples, Italy (Dr G. Salzano).

CiteULike    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter     What's this?