Balloon Sinuplasty is a new treatment for chronic sinusitis. Its basic principle is to place a balloon through a catheter at the opening of the sinus, and expand the opening through the balloon to facilitate sinus drainage. This article is an interview conducted by doctors for patients undergoing this surgery for your reference.
Doctor : A balloon sinuplasty procedure is an in-office procedure that we perform for patients that have either recurring sinusitis, chronic sinusitis, or recurring sinus headaches. It’s performed in the office as an outpatient awake with minimal to no recovery time. If an individual is having multiple sinus infections a year or a chronic sinus infection, meaning an infection that doesn’t resolve with multiple rounds of antibiotics, that’s the first step of determining candidacy for the procedure itself. The second criteria is their CT exam findings. So usually on the first visit or second visit, we’ll perform a sinus scan to sinus-related problems or potentially allergy-related issues as well. So using those two criteria really helps us define which patients will be a good candidate and which patients will have great success from doing the procedure.
The procedure is very simple. It’s usually performed in about a 45 minute to 60 minute time frame in the office. The patient is awake for it, which sounds scary to a lot of people, but in the hundreds of procedures we’ve done, patients have done very well with it. The first 30 to 45 minutes is limited to just numbing up the nose and it’s really a two-step process. The first thing we do is place a piece of cotton that’s coated in numbing medication on both sides of their nasal cavities. And then once that has a chance to set, we then do a numbing injection in their nose, which the patients don’t feel other than maybe a little tingly sensation. Once the anesthetization is complete, then we do the procedure, which lasts maybe 10 to 15 minutes. The procedure itself is really just a dilation of their sinus openings. So we use a balloon and it goes into the narrowed openings of their sinus cavities. Once that balloon is in place, then we inflate it for about 3 to 4 seconds and that expands or opens that sinus cavity up.
Patient : Good. We’re in perfect position here. You’re going to feel a little bit of pressure as we inflate. Go ahead and inflate.
Doctor : There’s usually two to three areas on each side of their sinuses that we dilate. And then once that’s completed, the procedure is done. And typically the recovery time is a little bit of headache for that first evening, maybe the next day, but a lot of patients are able to return to their work, their job, their normal activity that same afternoon.
Doctor : Are you feeling okay?
Patient : Yeah, it really wasn’t that bad.
Doctor : Okay. Great. So I’ll see you back next week and we’ll take a look in there and see how you’re healing. Okay. I’ll walk you up to the front.
Patient : Okay.
Doctor : My experience. And if you look at research across the country, it’s, it’s pretty well documented that the success rate is well above 90%. And I would say it’s even probably above 90% for our practice. We define success as a 85 to 90% reduction in the number of headaches and or sinus infections that that patient has having. Usually I’ll have patients follow up within one to two weeks after their procedure, and almost invariably they all come back with smiles on their face, let me know how much better their sinus issues are, how much better they feel. I’ve had some patients, well, they’ll go 20, 30 years with sinus issues, sinus headaches almost every day of their life, and then you’ll see them at that two-week mark, and some of them even with tears in their eyes are so happy because they’re able to now live without having daily headaches.
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Source:
HK ENT Specialist Ltd.
ENT Head and Neck Surgery Centre
For ENT Services, Audiology & Speech Therapy,
Sleep Disordered Breathing Management,
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