Rhinomanometric Evaluation of Patients with Nasal Obstruction Before and After Nasal Surgery

Abstract

Background: Nasal obstruction is a common complaint in daily Otolaryngology practice. Rhinomanometric study is an objective tool for the evaluation of nasal obstruction. Objectives: To evaluate whether a correlation exists between the rhinomanomatric measurement of nasal resistance, nasal airflow, and the subjective sensation of airflow, pre and postoperatively. Materials and Methods: This study was conducted in the Otolaryngology Department at Basrah Teaching Hospital on 23 patients who prepared for nasal surgeries to improve their nasal obstruction complain. The study was covered the period of the 2004 year. The anterior rhinomanometry was done for all patients preoperatively (with and without decongestant) and post-operatively without decongestant. Results: Out of 23 patients, 15 (65.2%) were males. The age ranged from 17 to 45 years with a mean of 25.5 years ± 7.019. The most common associated symptom with nasal obstruction was rhinorrhea (n=15, 65.2%). Only 12 cases were attended by the postoperative evaluation. Three-quarters of them were showed clinical improvement, but 4 patients (34%) were showed rhinomanometric improvement (P-value = 0.002). There was no statistically significant difference between the pre- and postoperative rhinomanometric values without decongestant and the subjective sensation (P-value>0.05). Conclusion: The anterior rhinomanometry results didn’t add a significant value to the clinical evaluation of the patients with nasal obstruction.