Post-operative Complications after Different Turbinates Operations (Comparative Study).

Purpose: Since Inferior turbinate hypertrophy is on top list of the most common causes of nasal blockage, this study is trial for recording the exact incidence for the postoperative complications of two different procedures of turbinate reduction, thus comparing endoscopic submucosal diathermy and radiofrequency ablation.

Methods: retrospective randomized comparative study involved forty patients with resistant bilateral nasal blockage due to hypertrophy of the inferior turbinates attending the outpatient clinic of Otorhinolaryngology of (XXXX) University Hospitals. Patients were assigned randomly into 2 groups. Group (1) n = 20 which referred to the sub-mucosal diathermy procedure and Group (2) n = 20 whome were treated by radiofrequency ablation, postoperative complications were assessed and quantified.

Results: Comparison of the post-operative complications rates in each technique: there was a remarkable difference after one week with group (1) showed 11% rate, considering group (2) The complication rate was 5.5%. After one month, still significant difference with 9% in group (1), and only 3.5% in the second group. After six months, there was still a remarkable difference with 5%, in group (1) and only 2.7% of group (2).

Conclusion: A significant improvement of nasal symptoms with less complications rate in radiofrequency technique in comparison with the sub mucous diathermy reduction of inferior turbinates.