Assessment of pre and postoperative symptomatology in patients undergoing inferior turbinectomy.

UNLABELLED Partial inferior turbinectomy is a procedure directed to treat nasal obstruction secondary to hypertrophy rhinitis. This study evaluates the impact of this procedure in the quality of life of the patients, analyzing the improvement of other symptoms such as rhinorrhea, nasal itching and sneezing after six months of the surgical procedure. STUDY DESIGN Clinical prospective. MATERIAL AND METHOD Forty-nine patients submitted to turbinectomy associated or not with septoplasty, received questionnaires to grade the intensity of symptoms. Through the comparison of severity of symptoms before and after six months of the surgery, it was possible to evaluate the degree of improvement of each symptom. The results were classified as null, good, moderate and great, and we subtracted postoperative score from the preoperative score. RESULTS The nasal obstruction presented good or great results in 98% of the patients. For rhinorrhea, the surgery has resulted in good or great improvement in 49% of the cases. Sneezing presented good or great results in 81.6% of the patients and, nasal itching, 45%. CONCLUSION The study showed that the clinical benefits obtained with the partial inferior turbinectomy are not limited to nasal obstruction, extending also to others symptoms of rhinitis, mainly in relation to sneezing crisis.