Cryosurgery of the inferior nasal turbinates.

Forty-seven patients with irreversible nasal obstruction due to inferior turbinate hypertrophy were treated by cryosurgery, the short and medium term results having been clinically evaluated. Permanent good results in nasal breathing were achieved in 83% of the patients. Failures are mostly related to turbinates hypertrophy due to nasal allergy. The combination of cryosurgery and nasal septoplasty, in cases of hypertrophy associated with deformities of nasal septum, gives an excellent result. Cryosurgery of hypertrophic nasal turbinates is a simple, safe, and reliable procedure to improve nasal breathing in cases of nasal turbinate hypertrophy.