ROLE OF RADIO FREQUENCY IN THE MANAGEMENT OF INFERIOR TURBINATE HYPERTROPHY

BACKGROUND: Surgery of inferior turbinates is a divisive subject. Surgical management includes functional and invasive procedures. Radiofrequency ablation - A Minimally invasive well-designed daycare nasal surgery which also preserves mucosal function of the inferior turbinate. OBJECTIVE: To appraise the efficacy of radiofrequency in the management of inferior turbinate hypertrophy. MATERIALS AND METHODS: current study is a prospective cram conducted in the Department of ENT from August 2013 to August 2014 with 100 patients who had nasal obstruction due to Inferior turbinate hypertrophy and obstinate to medical therapy. Patients were excluded if they had history or physical examination that indicate other causes of nasal obstruction like nasal polyp, nasal tumors, previous nasal surgeries, diabetes mellitus, severe nasal deformities, coagulopathy disorders, severe systemic diseases, radiotherapy to nose. The study was based on history of diagnosis, clinical examination, diagnostic nasal endoscopy and imaging. We used radio frequency generator BM-780 II unit with power of 70 watt radio wave emission in bipolar mode for 59-seconds, stopped the emission once visual blanching of mucous membrane occurred. Postoperative follow up scheduled as follows: 1st month, 3rd month, 6th month, 12th month. RESULTS: Among 100 patients 92 patients completely relieved of symptoms, 8 patients showed no improvement based on both subjective and objective parameters. CONCLUSIONS: Simple, harmless, minimally invasive, daycare procedure advantages made the Radiofrequency tissue ablation procedure as one amongst the best apt surgical option for management of inferior turbinate hypertrophy and the current study added credit to its efficiency once again.