Abstract
Background: Septoplasty with submucous resection of the inferior turbinate (SMRT) is a common correctional surgery performed in patients with deviated nasal septum resulting in nasal obstruction. Although complications are infrequent, studies examining long-term complications following septoplasty with SMRT are rare.
Methods: We conducted a retrospective review of patients electing to undergo septoplasty with SMRT at a tertiary rhinology clinic from January 2007 to December 2015. Demographic data, intraoperative findings, duration of follow-up, and short-term and long-term complications were collected. Exclusion criteria included patients who underwent either septoplasty or turbinate reduction or any other nasal surgery, patients lost to follow-up within 1 year, and patients with incomplete medical records.
Results: A total of 359 patients met inclusion criteria. The majority were males (66.6%), and the average age of the cohort was 36.8 ± 12.3 years. The mean follow-up time was 23.3 months. Short-term complications were postoperative infection (n=12, 3.3%) and epistaxis that required intervention (n=16, 4.5%). Long-term complications occurred in 10 patients (2.8%): revision septoplasty (n=9, 2.5%) and hyposmia (n=1, 0.3%). No instances of synechiae, septal perforation, or saddle nose deformity occurred.
Conclusion: Long-term complications following septoplasty with SMRT are infrequent. The most common long-term complication in this cohort was revision septoplasty.
- ©2019 by the author(s); Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY)
©2019 by the author(s); licensee Ochsner Journal, Ochsner Clinic Foundation, New Orleans, LA. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode) that permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author(s) and source are credited.