New wand coblation turbinator vs coblation radiofrequency.

INTRODUCTION: İnferior turbinate hypertrophy is a common reason of nasal obstruction. One of the most preferred surgical metod is radiofrequency tecnique. Coblation submucosal reduction turbinator (SCT);new surgical device; started to use recently. Since the method is new, very few study has been done yet. We compare coblation radiofrequency (CR) with SCT.

MATERIAL AND METHODS: Patients with only inferior turbinate hypertrophy but no other diseases included in study. Paranasal CT was made to all patient to rule out turbinate bone hypertrophy. Group 1 32 patient; performed CR. Group 2 25 patients performed SCT. To all patients preoperative and 3 weeks later post operative mucosiliary activity test was performed. Nasal flow was measured with nasal flow meter preoperatively and 3 weeks post operatively. VAS and NOSE was measured. Results compared between two groups. SCT performed under general; CR performed under local anesthesia.

RESULTS: There was significant nasal flow changes in CR group. (p < 0.001) There was no difference in pre-and-post operatively saccharin test results in CR group. (p = 0.385) There was slightly nasal flow gain in SCT group but this was not statistically significant. (p < 0.192) Also there was no statistically significant changes in pre-and-post operatively saccharin test results in SCT group. (p = 0.167) There was no difference between two groups in terms of post operative nasal flow values and mucociliary activity. (respectively p = 0.562, p = 0.355). (Table 2). Both two tecnique has significant increase in VAS and NOSE scores. (p < 0.001).

CONCLUSIONS: According to our study two tecnique is suitable and safe for nasal mucociliary activity. Tecniques has positive effect on nasal flow, VAS and NOSE scores.