A number of surgical techniques are commonly performed to control the symptoms of inferior turbinate hypertrophy unresponsive to medical treatment. We report long-term results in 382 patients randomly assigned to receive electrocautery (62), cryotherapy (58), laser cautery (54), submucosal resection without lateral displacement (69), submucosal resection with lateral displacement (94), and turbinectomy (45). Outcomes of objective test results from rhinomanometry, acoustic rhinometry, mucociliary transport time, and secretory immunoglobulin A levels were compared to the symptom scores before and yearly after surgical treatment. These data indicate that submucosal resection with lateral displacement of the inferior turbinate results in the greatest increases in airflow and nasal respiratory function with the lowest risk of long-term complications.

In the past 130 years, many surgical procedures for turbinate reduction have been developed. We analyzed the long-term efficacy of 6 of these surgical techniques (turbinectomy, laser cautery, electrocautery, cryotherapy, submucosal resection, and submucosal resection with lateral displacement) over a 6-year follow-up period. We randomly divided 382 patients into 6 therapeutic groups and surgically treated them at the Department of Otorhinolaryngology of the University of Siena. After 6 years, only submucosal resection resulted in optimal long-term normalization of nasal patency and in restoration of mucociliary clearance and local secretory IgA production to a physiological level with few postoperative complications (p < .001). The addition of lateral displacement of the inferior turbinate improved the long-term results. We recommend, in spite of the greater surgical skill required, submucosal resection combined with lateral displacement as the first-choice technique for the treatment of nasal obstruction due to hypertrophy of the inferior turbinates.KEY WORDS -hypertrophy, inferior turbinate, submucosal resection.

Objective: To evaluate the efficacy and safety of mometasone furoate nasal spray (NS) for the treatment of nasal polyposis.

No abstract

Use of intranasal furosemide represents a valid therapeutic treatment in the prevention of chronic hyperplastic sinusitis with nasal polyposis.

If there are severe breathing problems related to the septal deviation, septoplasty should be performed. In the majority of cases, septal surgery may be conducted in 6-year-old children. However, if necessary, septal surgery may be performed in younger children and even at birth.

The ingestion of foreign bodies causing esophageal injuries is a common event, mostly in children's population. The aim of the present paper is to present foreign body (FB) ingestion cases observed in a five-year period at the Children's Hospital Gutierrez, Buenos Aires, Argentina and to compare the main findings with data coming from other well-known case series, already published in scientific literature. A prospective study on 320 of esophageal foreign body was carried out , with regard to age and sex distributions, type, dimensions and consistency, location, clinical presentation, removal and complications. In the majority of cases injuries happened while children were playing and in 85.3% adults were present. Children most frequently ingested coins (83.8% cases). Removal was performed in all cases under general anaesthesia, in 34 by esophageal forceps and in 286 cases by Magill hypopharyngeal forceps. Just one case showed complications, presenting esophageal perforation. The final results of this study show that injuries usually happen under adults' supervision and highlight that FBs involved in the incident belong to classes of objects not conceived for children's use and not suitable for their age. Therefore, educational strategies regarding safe behaviours have a key role in FB injuries prevention.

Mucociliary transport (MCT) represents the first barrier of the nasal fossae and paranasal sinuses against various biological and physical insults. We studied the nasal MCT time using a mixture of vegetable charcoal powder and 3% saccharin in three groups of patients suffering from hypertrophy of the inferior turbinates, deviations of the nasal septum or chronic sinusitis. The mean values of the nasal MCT in the first two groups were practically identical to the normal ones. In contrast, significantly delayed times were found in patients with chronic sinusitis (P < 0.01). Findings indicate that this delay is determined by an increase in viscoelasticity of the mucus following the acute release of mediators of inflammation, together with a reduction in the periciliary stratum, which slows down the metachronous wave of the MCT.