PREOPERATIVE AND POSTOPERATIVE EVALUATION OF PATIENTS WITH NASAL OBSTRUCTION UNDERGOING ENDOSCOPIC SINUS SURGERY

Functional endoscopic endonasal sinus surgery (FESS) is at present the surgical method of choice for many clinicians treating chronic sinusi tis and nasal polyposis. Postoperatively, patients have felt that pate ncy of the nasal airway is improved, although all previous studies hav e failed to objectively measure changes produced. By using anterior ac tive rhinomanometry, decreased unilateral and total nasal resistance w as measured. Although improvement in total resistance was not statisti cally significant, reduction in unilateral resistance was, All patient s demonstrated subjective improvements in unilateral and total nasal p atencies. The reduction in nasal resistance was more pronounced in bas eline resistance values than after decongestion, indicating that FESS had a positive effect on mucosal edema but did not alter the structura l anatomy of the main nasal passages.