Preoperative and postoperative nasal septal surgery assessment with acoustic rhinometry.

INTRODUCTION

Acoustic rhinometry is a relatively new tool used for the measurement of the geometry of the nasal fossa. We hypothesized that acoustic rhinometry would be useful for preoperative and postoperative assessment of patients undergoing septal surgery.

METHODS AND MATERIAL: Twenty-four patients undergoing septal surgery performed by two surgeons underwent preoperative and postoperative rhinometry. The indications for surgery were nasal obstruction caused by a deviated nasal septum. Rhinometry was conducted with the Eccovision Acoustic Rhinometry System (Hood Laboratories). Analysis of the data was performed with the Kwikstat program (Texasoft) and Excel (Microsoft).

RESULTS

Subjective improvement in nasal patency was significantly correlated with improvement in acoustic rhinometry.

CONCLUSIONS

Acoustic rhinometry is valuable in objectively confirming nasal patency after nasal septal and turbinate surgery.