Comparison of the long term efficacy of radiofrequency ablation and surgical turbinoplasty in inferior turbinate hypertrophy: a randomized clinical study.
OBJECTIVE
To compare the long term effectiveness of radiofrequency thermal ablation with that of surgical turbinoplasty, a prospective, randomized, blinded clinical study was conducted.


METHODS
Eighty six patients suffering from nasal obstruction due to bilateral inferior turbinate hypertrophy were enrolled. Forty four patients were operated by radiofrequency ablation, while 42 underwent surgical turbinoplasty. The outcomes of both techniques were compared in terms of symptoms using visual analogue score (VAS) and endoscopic scores.


RESULTS
A statistically significant difference in the VAS scores existed between the two groups by the 3rd month in terms of nasal obstruction (p=.0002) and headache (p=.0001), by the 6th month in terms of nasal secretions (p=.007), by the end of 1 year in terms of sneezing (p=.023) and no statistically significant difference even till the end of year with respect to hyposmia.


CONCLUSIONS
Radiofrequency thermal ablation is more effective than surgical turbinoplasty in terms of treating nasal obstruction and equally effective in terms of managing sneezing. Radiofrequency ablation has the advantage of being a day care procedure and minimal complications.
a Department of ENT and Head & Neck Surgery , Mahatma Gandhi Medical College and Research Institute , Pondicherry , India.
Satvinder Singh
SS
Bakshi
b Department of ENT and Head & Neck Surgery , ESIC Hospital , Chennai , India.
Kiruba
K
Shankar Manoharan
a Department of ENT and Head & Neck Surgery , Mahatma Gandhi Medical College and Research Institute , Pondicherry , India.
Surianarayanan
S
Gopalakrishnan
D000328:Adult; D000556:Ambulatory Surgical Procedures; D017115:Catheter Ablation; D005260:Female; D006760:Hospitalization; D006801:Humans; D006984:Hypertrophy / Q000601:surgery; D008297:Male; D015508:Nasal Obstruction / Q000209:etiology / Q000601:surgery*; D013517:Otorhinolaryngologic Surgical Procedures; D011183:Postoperative Complications; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012912:Sneezing; D014420:Turbinates / Q000473:pathology / Q000601:surgery*; D064232:Visual Analog Scale
Turbinate hypertrophy; radiofrequency; surgical turbinoplasty; visual analogue score