Nasal obstruction: comparison of radiofrequency with lateral displacement of the inferior turbinate and radiofrequency alone.

OBJECTIVE To compare the outcomes of the nasal obstruction, the main symptom of the patients who underwent radiofrequency and lateral displacement of the inferior turbinate and patients who were treated with radiofrequency alone. METHODS The prospective randomised study was conducted at the Department of Otorhinolaryngology and Head-Neck Surgery, Balikesir University Medical School, Balikesir, Turkey, between July and December 2012. It included 60 patients, diagnosed with allergic or non-allergic chronic rhinitis with inferior turbinate hypertrophy which was refractory to medical therapy. Half of the patients were treated with radiofrequency, and the rest with radiofrequency and lateral displacement. The main symptom of the patients was nasal obstruction. The frequency and degree of nasal obstruction were evaluated by patients' self-assessments using the standard 10-cm visual analogue scale. The evaluations were performed first pre-operatively and on the 1st, 3rd, 5th and 7th days postoperatively as well as at the end of the 4th week. SPSS 18 was used for statistical analysis. RESULTS Nasal obstruction frequency and severity scores in patients treated with both radiofrequency and lateral displacement on post-operative days 3, 5 and 7 were found to be significantly lower (p<0.001) compared to the patients treated with only radiofrequency. CONCLUSIONS The study demonstrated that radiofrequency and lateral displacement together is an effective method to prevent inferior turbinate oedema in the early post-operative period.