The importance of nasal airway resistance and nasal symptoms in the selection of patients for septoplasty.

The postoperative symptoms and subjective improvement of 100 patients who had undergone functional septoplasty were compared with the change of unilateral nasal airway resistance (NAR). Before the operation, the NAR after decongestion of all these 100 patients was higher than normal. 81 were subjectively improved - whereas 94 had improved according to rhinomanometry. 74 percent of those who were subjectively improved obtained a normal NAR thanks to the operation. Among the remaining 19 patients, 37% ended up with normal NAR, too. The preoperative symptoms of those 100 patients were compared to the symptoms of 100 non-operated subjects who suffered from nasal stuffiness but whose NAR was normal. The patients whose NAR was higher than normal had more often unilateral nasal stuffiness, and a larger number of them were able to remember a nasal trauma. Still, almost 15 patients with high NAR did not recall a trauma, nor did they suffer from unilateral stuffiness. The conclusion is that rhinomanometry is necessary in the selection of patients for septal surgery.