Introduction: The compensatory hypertrophy of the inferior turbinate in patients with septal deviation to one of the nostrils is considered to protect the airways from the excess of air that could enter through the nostril and its potential negative effects such as dryness, alteration of air filtration, mucociliary flow, or lung involvement.
Materials and methods: A prospective, longitudinal, non-randomized study. Patients were divided in two groups: 10 consecutive patients, with nasal septal deviation and compensatory hypertrophy of the inferior turbinate in the contralateral nasal cavity (10 non-hypertrophied turbinates as control and 10 contralateral hypertrophied turbinates as study cases), and the second group with 5 patients without any nasal pathology (10 turbinates without any obvious pathology). In both groups CT scans of the nasal region were performed. A comparison of patients with nasal septal deviation with compensatory hypertrophy of the inferior turbinate in the contralateral nasal cavity and with non-pathological inferior turbinate was carried out.
Results: When analyzing the groups of patients with septal deviation, the contralateral hypertrophied turbinate and the non-hypertrophied turbinate side, we found a significant hypertrophy in the anterior portion of the inferior turbinate, at the level of the medial mucosa (P = 0.002) and bone (P = 0.001) in the group of patients with contralateral hypertrophied turbinate. However, when we compared the contralateral hypertrophic turbinate with the turbinate of patients without septal deviation, we found a significant difference in all volumes of the medial and lateral mucosa and the bone portion (P = 0.001, P = 0.005).
Conclusion: Surgical correction of the nasal septum and lateralization or reduction of the volume of the inferior turbinate (which may include the medial mucosa, head or part of the bone) is necessary in order to improve air passage into the nasal valve.