Which technique is better for turbinate reduction: surgical turbinoplasty or radiofrequency ablation?
Reviewed by Sangeeta Maini and Bhaskar Ram

This is a randomised controlled study comparing surgical turbinoplasty to radiofrequency thermal ablation to inferior turbinates. Inclusion (failed medical treatment in adults aged 18-50 years) and exclusion criteria (gross septal deviation, nasal polyps, history of previous nasal surgery or radiation, nasal neoplasms and oral steroids for any other systemic condition) seem appropriate. Both procedures were done under local anaesthesia. Surgical turbinoplasty patients were treated as inpatients and kept in the hospital for 2-4 days with nasal packing while radiofrequency patients were treated as outpatients or day care patients and required no postoperative nasal packing. Visual analogue score was used to monitor the patients at week 1, week 6, three months, six months and one year. Postoperative complications included significant bleeding in 11.9% who underwent surgical turbinoplasty while none had significant bleeding in the radiofrequency group. Postoperative crusting was found to be higher in the surgical rhinoplasty group. Both techniques seem to show good improvement in all the symptoms. At one year follow-up surgical turbinoplasty showed a marginal benefit to radiofrequency ablation in terms of nasal obstruction but was not statistically significant. We feel it is a good study and radiofrequency ablation can be considered a safe option for turbinate reductions. The reduced hospital stay, reduced crusting and reduced bleeding rate may be an advantage. Bleeding can be notoriously significant following turbinate surgery. However in UK practice turbinate surgery on its own is usually not performed in large numbers.

Comparison of the long term efficacy of radiofrequency ablation and surgical turbinoplasty in inferior turbinate hypertrophy: a randomized clinical study.
Bakshi SS, Manoharan KS, Gopalakrishnan S.
ACTA OTO-LARYNGOLOGICA
2017;137(8):856-61.