What is inferior turbinate enlargement

Inferior turbinate hypertrophy refers to the hyperplasia of the mucosa and submucosa tissue of the inferior turbinate of the patient. Simple rhinitis, chronic hypertrophic rhinitis, allergic rhinitis and other diseases can cause patients to develop inferior turbinate hypertrophy. As the epithelial cilia of the nasal mucosa fall off, the submucosa becomes edematous, followed by fibrous tissue hyperplasia and mucosal hypertrophy, which can cause periosteal and bone tissue hyperplasia and hypertrophic changes in the nasal turbinate bone in severe cases. Inferior turbinate hypertrophy is very common and can occur in all ages, but it is common in the elderly and children, mainly causing nasal narrowing, poor ventilation and nasal congestion, and in severe cases, headache, snoring and breath-holding. In addition, the patient’s breathing disorder can lead to memory loss, mental discomfort, and in severe cases, emphysema, pulmonary heart disease, asthma, and other diseases. If the patient has the above symptoms, endoscopy can be performed at the ENT department of the hospital to clarify the status of the turbinates. In addition, nasal ventilation examination, nasal resistance and acoustic reflex nasal measurement can also reflect the morphology in the nasal cavity. Patients with inferior turbinate hypertrophy can be treated with nasal drops containing vasoconstrictor or submucosal sclerosing agent of inferior turbinate under the guidance of professional doctors to cause local chemical inflammatory reaction, produce scar tissue, reduce the volume of turbinate and improve ventilation, in addition, cryosurgery can be used to regenerate mucosa by necrosis of diseased mucosa. If the above treatment is ineffective, partial inferior turbinate resection is feasible. In daily life, patients should avoid colds and pay attention to nasal cleaning to avoid aggravating symptoms.