Nasal manipulation with intravenous sedation. Is it an acceptable and effective treatment?

Local anaesthesia is increasingly being used for nasal manipulation. Doubt remains over the discomfort associated with this procedure. We studied in a prospective manner, the acceptability and effectiveness of nasal manipulation with intravenous sedation and local anaesthesia, in a case series of thirty-five patients. Patients used linear analogue scales to assess outcome and pain associated with the procedure. More than half of the patients (60%) returned pain scores of only 1 out of 10. Thirty-two patients (90%) found the procedure less painful than receiving a tooth filling from the dentist, while thirty-four patients (97%) said they would undergo the same procedure again if they re-fractured their nose. The effectiveness of the treatment as assessed by an independent observer revealed that 90% of patients had achieved a significant reduction in their deformity (P = 1.27 x 10(-9).