Auto news on Youtube Aug 31 2017

Patients will often present to an otolaryngologist office

and consultation for sinus surgery.

And we determine whether or not there's

a need for sinus surgery based on multiple factors.

A thorough history is taken to find out

how many infections a patient's had over how many years.

So usually, a patient that ends up needing sinus surgery,

is had multiple, chronic, recurrent sinus infections.

There may be other factors involved,

such as failed courses of medications.

Usually patients that end up needing sinus surgery,

have tried multiple different rounds

of antibiotics, multiple different rounds

of steroid therapies, multiple different nasal sprays,

saline irrigation, so they've tried a lot of things.

And eventually, those treatments have failed time after time.

So when patients come into my office,

and they eventually choose sinus surgery,

it's simply because they're sick of being sick.

I asked that question a lot in my office.

Are you sick of being sick?

And if that answer is yes, then let's

talk about whether or not there could

be a procedure to help you.

So we choose patients for sinus surgery

based on a couple of things.

One is, is their endoscopic exam abnormal?

So when a patient comes in for evaluation in our office,

we'll decongest their nose with a topical spray.

We'll give them a little topical lidocaine

just to numb their nose up, so that they don't

feel us looking in their nose.

And we'll pass a small, flexible endoscope

through the nasal cavities and examine the problematic areas.

If there are tissue swelling, or polyps,

or anything else that's abnormal that's scene,

we'll counsel the patient about that finding.

If we see those things, we're often

going to order a C.T. scan.

A sinus C.T. scan gives us invaluable information

about the extent of the disease, are there other things

involved, are there hidden polyps,

is there infection in and around the sinus bone?

So the sinus C.T. is a common tool

that we use to diagnose sinus disease in patients

and choose patients for sinus surgery.