Published online by Cambridge University Press: 27 October 2021
Post-operative bleeding is one of the most common and severe complications of turbinate surgery. This study compared post-operative bleeding following partial turbinectomy, submucosal turbinate reduction and endoscopic turbinoplasty.
Post-operative bleeding was assessed in patients who underwent inferior turbinate intervention by partial turbinectomy, submucosal turbinate reduction or endoscopic turbinoplasty between January 2016 and November 2017 and had completed at least one month of follow up.
Of 1035 patients who underwent inferior turbinate surgery during the study period, 751 were included. Of these, 56 (7.5 per cent) presented to the emergency room with post-operative bleeding; 31 (8.4 per cent) had undergone partial turbinectomy, 19 (10.7 per cent) had undergone submucosal turbinate reduction and 6 (3.0 per cent) had undergone endoscopic turbinoplasty. The odds ratio of requiring an intervention to control bleeding was significantly lower in the endoscopic turbinoplasty group than in the submucosal turbinate reduction group (odds ratio = 3.26, 95 per cent confidence interval = 1.02–10.43).
Endoscopic turbinoplasty had the lowest rate of post-operative bleeding and the lowest rate of patients requiring intervention.
Dr E Levy takes responsibility for the integrity of the content of the paper
Preliminary data from this project were presented at the 27th Congress of the European Rhinology Society, 22–26 April 2018, London, UK, and at the Annual Meeting of the Israeli Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery Society, 7–10 March 2018, Eilat, Israel.