Time-Lapse Between Presentation and Treatment of Mandibular Fractures: Is There a Correlation With Sensory Loss Recovery or No Recovery?

Abstract

A possible disadvantage of the traction suture method is the tendency of caudal septum to return to the previous position due to the effect of cartilage memory. However, only 8.8% of patients in the present study were found to have residual deviation. This finding implies that pulling force established in traction suture method is stronger than the tendency of caudal septum to return to the previous position. Results with NOSE score (85.1 versus 22.4) and improved airway findings in 91.3% of the patients support such a conclusion.Patient outcomes from the operation were measured using NOSE score, endoscopic examination results, and patients' their own evaluations. NOSE scores (85.1 versus 22.4), patients their own evaluations and endoscopic results (91%) were similar. NOSE scores and endoscopic examinations were mentioned to be useful parameters to evaluate the patients' benefitting from the operation in the previous studies, and similar to our findings, improvement of the postoperative NOSE scores, and postoperative endoscopic findings were parallel in those studies. 2,3,12 Our study has some limitations. Retrospective nature of the research and lack of randomization are the main weaknesses of our report. Besides, we did not use methods that provide objective data such as acoustic rhinometry or rhinomanometry in our study. The use of this objective data could contribute to reveal the degree of improvement in nasal obstruction. In our study, we evaluated the postoperative status of the septum through endoscopy. Although such a practice carried a risk for bias, endoscopic examination findings were evaluated by another surgeon to minimize this problem. Similar to ours, some previous studies also used endoscopic examinations to evaluate the postoperative status of the caudal septum. 2,3,12 CONCLUSIONSAn ideal caudal septoplasty should be minimally invasive and eliminate the nasal obstruction. In the present study we showed that traction suture method efficiently improved nasal obstructions in patients with caudal septal deviation. This is a simple and safe alternative for surgeons to correct caudal septum deviations.