Inferior Turbinate Reduction Nasal Surgery

Dr. Lamperti discusses inferior turbinate reduction nasal surgery including the small incision used for surgery. He then shows a video clip of actual turbinate trimming surgery using a submucous approach (from underneath the turbinate skin lining).

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Video transcript:

"This is Dr. Thomas Lamperti and I'm a double board certified facial plastic surgeon in Seattle.  Today I'd like to show you a before and after video of an inferior turbinate submucous resection.  And as we enter the nasal cavity on the right side you can see the inferior turbinate on our left.  Our camera is abutting up against it now.  And on the right is the septum. In preparation for surgery we did apply some afrin spray or decongestant spray. This causes the turbinate to appear less congested or enlarged compared with its baseline. And next we’ll be able to see a video of the actual process of performing submucous resection of the turbinate.

What this means is that we are entering the turbinate from just one small access point which you can see here and submucosally, meaning from below the mucosa or skin lining, we reduce the bulkiness of the turbinate. And in this patients case this involves reducing both the bony overgrowth of the turbinate, which is what gives the turbinate its curved shape. But also reducing the thickened or hypertrophic skin lining itself. As you can see we are using a device that involves a small blade at the end that also irrigates salt water through as it shaves the bone and soft tissue and suctions it out. That reduces the overall size very gently in fact. This limited access incision is much more preferable to another style of turbinate reduction in which it is resected along its entire length. That tends to produce a longer area to heal and also prolonged crusting and longer term issues with improper nasal function. You can also see that even with using this limited access incision we style have great access to the entire length of the turbinate with dissection underneath the skin lining."

Learn more about inferior turbinate reduction surgery here.