Septoplasty Surgery

Septoplasty is a surgical procedure that is used to re-correct “crooked” or “deviated” nasal septum (the parting wall between the nose’s right and the left chambers). It is sometimes referred to as septal reconstruction. During surgery, the surgeon enters through the patient’s nostrils and removes the obtruding matter. The surgery usually takes a short time and patients normally fully recover within one to three weeks. The main purpose of Septoplasty is to improve patients’ breathing patterns. There is no medicine that can straighten deviated septum. Currently, the only solution to treat this problem is septoplasty surgery which in some cases is combined with sinus surgery and/or rhinoplasty surgery.Septoplasty is performed under general or local anesthesia, based on the doctor’s preferences and evaluation of the patient’s situation.

Dr. Samieh Rizk, a New-York based rhinoplasty surgeon, said that Septoplasty often takes 45 minutes to perform (not including recovery time) and therefore is carried out on a day surgery basis. Sometimes, allergies can cause enlargement of the nasal tissue (turbinates). Enlarged turbinates are treated with various methods of turbinate reduction including radiofrequency ablation or oufracture of turbinates and submucous resection of the turbinates.

A CT scan is used in some patients if the nose surgery doctor suspects the existence of polyps (an abnormal growth of tissue projecting from a mucous membrane) or if a patient has a sinus problem in which can not be easily treated. Dr. Rizk usually recommended patients to also undergo allergy testing and take anti-allergy medications prior to surgery if he suspects allergy is the cause of turbinate enlargement, to avoid specific triggers and improve the surgical outcome.