Background: Insult from surgical trauma leads to a degeneration of the nasal epithelium, resulting in morphological-volumetric changes involving the entire cell or a specific cell component. Alterations in normal nasal mucosa were assessed by nasal cytology and other functional tests after either endoscopic turbinoplasty or laser-assisted turbinoplasty for reducing inferior turbinate enlargement.
Methods: A total of 150 patients with chronic nasal obstruction due to inferior turbinate hypertrophy were randomly assigned to undergo laser-assisted turbinoplasty or endoscopic turbinoplasty. Preoperative and postoperative assessment at 1 and 3 months follow-up included active anterior rhinomanometry, measurement of mucociliary transport time (MCTt), and nasal cytology to determine whether improved nasal breathing was accompanied by a restoration of preoperative nasal cytology and MCTt. One year after the operation, nasal cytology was repeated to definitively evaluate the presence of surgery-related cytological damage.
Results: At both postoperative visits, nasal resistance had decreased similarly in both treatment groups; mean MCTt was significantly shorter in the endoscopic turbinoplasty-treated group (p < 0.05); at both visits, the number of altered ciliated cells had increased in the laser-assisted turbinoplasty-treated group but decreased in the endoscopic turbinoplasty-treated group, which, unlike the laser-assisted turbinoplasty-treated group, was also noted to have progressed toward a significant improvement in the goblet-to-ciliated cell ratio (p < 0.01).
Conclusion: When compared with laser-assisted turbinoplasty, endoscopic turbinoplasty is a conservative technique for inferior turbinate reduction that allows better restoration of preoperative nasal cytology and shorter MCTt.