A safe, alternative technique for inferior turbinate reduction

Abstract

Objective: Submucous resection of the inferior turbinates is a conventional technique for reducing their size to achieve patent nasal airways in situations where an enlarged turbinate contributes to airway obstruction. Many techniques and complications have been described in the past. We describe a new inferior turbinate reduction technique performed with powered instrumentation and assess its success and complication rates.

Study design: A prospective study of 120 consecutive patients who underwent submucous resection of the inferior turbinates with a microdebrider.

Methods: Patient questionnaires were used for subjective assessment of symptoms before and after the procedure. We graded each patient's inferior turbinates for size from I to III before and 6 weeks after surgery for objective analysis.

Results: The common complications of standard submucous resection of inferior turbinates include excessive resection, postoperative bleeding, and crusting. The advantage of the microdebrider technique is the precise control of the amount of tissue and location of tissue that is removed on a submucosal plane. The complications encountered with this technique are limited to postoperative bleeding that occurred in 1.6% of patients. There was no crusting or excessive removal of tissue.

Conclusion: The results show that submucous resection of inferior turbinates with a microdebrider is a safe method of achieving turbinate size reduction with minimal morbidity.