Surgical Treatment for Intranasal Synechiae

Purpose: Many authors reported about the posttraumatic nasal aesthetic complications. However, the studies for functional or intranasal complications are not enough yet. We identified relatively high prevalence of nasal obstruction and olfactory dysfunction in nasal synechiae, and the synechiae formation was a frequently occurred after the nasal bone reduction. And then, the aim of this study is to identify the usefulness of the treatment of intranasal synechiae. Methods: We reviewed the data from 10 patients with symptomatic intranasal synechiae from June 2007 to June 2009. We enforced evaluation with preoperative CT in all patients but postoperative CT within complicated patients. We studied 10 patients with intranasal synechiae who had persistence postoperative symptoms. We studied the patients who were operated by removal of synechiae and ancillary surgical treatments in the last two years. Results: In the previous report, the incidence of intranasal synechiae was 15% (n=62) and symptomatic synechiae was 16% (10/62). We classified the nasal bone fracture according to Stranc classification. In this paper, the incidence of treated intranasal synechiae was 13% (2/15) in Frontal Impact (FI) Type I, 11% (2/18) in FI Type II, 100% (2/2) in FI Type III, 0% (0/2) in Lateral Impact (LI) Type I, 25% (3/12) in LI Type II, and 33% (1/3) in LI Type III, respectively. After removal of synechiae, all patients improved nasal obstruction and little improved olfactory disturbance. Conclusion: Simple removal of synechiae by scissors improved postoperative symptoms and complications such as nasal obstruction and olfactory dysfunction. After removal of synechiae, all patients improved nasal obstruction, however, little improved anosmia. So, we thought that olfactory dysfunction may result in many intranasal factors. First of all, education of delicate procedure regarding this subject should be empathized accordingly.