Atrophic Rhinitis: Results of Surgical Treatment

Abstract

For many years surgeons have attempted to reduce the size of the airway in patients with atrophic rhinitis. Several different operations have been devised. Some surgeons, for example, have widened the nasal septum by implanting foreign substances or autogenous cartilage or bone. Others have moved the entire lateral wall of the nose inward. Most of these procedures have been abandoned because the results were not satisfactory or because the operation itself was too severe. I have adopted the technique for narrowing the airway in which chips of iliac bone are placed in a subperiosteal pocket in the lateral wall of the nose. This method has been used by others and has been described before, but to my knowledge follow-up studies beyond the immediate postoperative period have not been reported. Eight patients who had atrophic rhinitis and were treated surgically have been reexamined three years after their operations. The findings are