Comparison of the Outcomes Among Patients Undergoing Septoplasty with or without Inferior Turbinoplasty

Objective: To compare the outcomes among nasal obstruction cases subjecting to septoplasty with or without inferior turbinoplasty in terms of alleviation of nasal symptoms and pain. Methodology: A comparative analytical study was conducted at ENT Department, Holy Family Hospital from Apr 2023 to Sep 2023. Two groups of Deviated Nasal Septum (DNS) each comprising of 75 cases who were enrolled by consecutive non-probability sampling. Group A was subjected to septoplasty only while group B cases underwent both septoplasty and inferior trubinoplasty. Apart from demographics, data was gathered pertaining to turbine hypertrophy in addition to severity of pain and alleviation of nasal symptoms by using Visual Analog Scale (VAS) and Nasal Obstruction Symptom Evaluation (NOSE) scale respectively. The patients of both groups were followed up for NOSE and VAS scores after 1st, 2nd and 3rd month of surgery. Data was analyzed by SPSS version 25.0. Difference in mean VAS and NOSE scores on follow up of the cases were determined by independent sample t-test. P < 0.05 was considered significant. Results: The mean age of the cases in group A and group B was 36 ± 2.4 and 34 ± 4.0 years respectively. Of the total 150 study subjects, most (109) were females. About 23 and 36 patients of group A and group B had grade-III inferior turbine hypertrophy. NOSE score among group B cases undergoing septoplasty along with inferior turbinoplasty showed statistically significant reduction on follow-up after 1st, 2nd and 3rd month with P-value of 0.002, 0.004 and 0.001 respectively. Likewise, VAS score among group B cases was suggestive of marked relief of pain in comparison with group A patients with P-value of 0.003 after 3rd month of follow-up.  Conclusion: Septoplasty coupled with inferior turbinoplasty resulted in significant alleviation of nasal symptoms along with periodic pain reduction among DNS cases.