Does final intraoperative endoscopic control increase surgical success in conventional septoplasty?

Abstract

Objectives: This study aimed to investigate the effects of the final endoscopic control performed intraoperatively in conventional septoplasty on operative time, residual deviation, and changes in Nasal Obstruction and Septoplasty Effectiveness Scale (NOSE) scores. Patients and Methods: One hundred twenty-five patients who applied with the complaint of nasal obstruction between June 2020 and May 2021 and were found to have isolated nasal septum deviation were evaluated in this prospective study. Patients with comorbidities were excluded from the study. Remaining 80 patients (55 males, 25 females; mean age: 30.1±8.9 years; range, 18 to 58 years) included in this study. The patients were divided into two groups of 40 individuals using the blocked randomization method. In the first group (CS-EC group; 26 male, 14 female; mean age: 31.7±8.3 year; range 18 to 58 year), after conventional septoplasty with head light, additional pathologies were corrected with the conventional method if it was detected by the endoscope. For the second group (CS group; 29 male, 11 female; mean age: 28.6±9.3 year; range 18 to 53 year), only conventional septoplasty was performed. The patients were evaluated with NOSE before and three months after the operation to evaluate the complaint of nasal obstruction. The groups were compared in terms of NOSE scores, operation time, and postoperative residual deviation. Results: The mean operation times in the CS-EC and CS groups were 44.9±9.3 and 39.0±7.7 min, respectively, and this difference was statistically significant (p=0.001). While there was no statistically significant difference between the CS-EC and CS groups in terms of preoperative total NOSE scores (p=0.211), the postoperative total NOSE score was found to be statistically significantly lower in the CS-EC group compared to the CS group (p=0.001). Conclusion: Final intraoperative endoscopic control of the nasal passage in classical septoplasty may be an effective method to detect septal deviations that cannot be adequately evaluated.