What is a nasal polyp?
Before understanding nasal polyp surgery, it is important to first understand what a nasal polyp is. Nasal polyps are a common nasal condition formed by the gradual prolapse of extremely edematous nasal sinus mucosa under the influence of gravity. Most believe that chronic infection and allergic reactions are the possible causes of the disease. In recent years, a close association with systemic diseases such as aspirin intolerance and endogenous asthma has been found. After a cold, the nose is not ventilated, which is the result of the swelling of the mucous membrane in the nasal cavity. After applying oral medication or local nasal drops, the swelling of the mucous membrane in the cavity will subside and the nose will be ventilated again. However, repeated swelling of the mucous membrane in the nasal cavity will lose elasticity like a balloon filled with water for a long time and cannot recover, forming nasal polyps. The nasal cavity is surrounded by a number of bony cavities called sinuses, including the pterygoid, septal, frontal and maxillary sinuses. The formation of some nasal polyps is related to the edema of the mucosa in these sinus cavities falling into the nasal cavity. Many nasal polyp patients are very distressed because the “root” of the polyp is in these bones, so some people describe nasal polyp surgery like cutting leeks, cutting one crop after another.
How is nasal polyp surgery done?
The main symptoms of nasal polyps are nasal incompetence, no smell, and nasal sound in speech. Hemorrhagic nasal polyps will have nasal bleeding. When nasal polyps are found, surgery is the best treatment for nasal polyps. Since the nasal cavity is adjacent to the eye and brain, surgery can be dangerous, especially when the eye is separated by a very thin bone plate, called a paper-like plate, which can be easily damaged if not done carefully during surgery.
Nasal polyp surgery requires anesthesia. Depending on the hospital conditions, general anesthesia or local anesthesia can be chosen. Generally, when the surgery is performed under local anesthesia, the patient is awake, and the tension will aggravate the pain. General anesthesia surgery is a painless surgery with the help of an anesthesiologist. Hospitals that have the conditions can perform controlled hypotension at the same time as general anesthesia, which results in less intraoperative bleeding, a clear operative field, and fewer complications. If the nasal cavity is then given surface anesthesia with a certain proportion of local anesthetics and vasoconstrictor solution under general anesthesia, the effect will be better.
Nasal endoscopy is the ideal method for treating rhinitis, sinusitis and nasal polyps, and is regarded as “a revolutionary advancement in sinus surgery”. The nasal endoscopy system is equipped with a cold light source camera and monitor, which can penetrate into the nasal cavity and display all the pathological changes hidden in the nasal cavity clearly. The small 3.5 mm hole can magnify the diseased tissues 500 times, and the whole process is clear and visible at a glance, allowing the surgery to achieve finer results and to proceed to areas that were not easily reached before. Compared with traditional surgery, nasal endoscopic aspiration of adenoids has the characteristics of clear field, precise operation, complete excision and convenient hemostasis, avoiding the lack of blindness and roughness of traditional surgical operation and not easy to damage normal structures. Therefore, nasal endoscopic adenoidectomy is safer and 1 to 3 times more effective. It transforms the traditional destructive surgery into a functional surgery based on complete removal of lesions, preserving the physiological function of the nasal cavity as much as possible, with less trauma, faster recovery, and a much higher cure rate, reducing patient pain.
Since nasal polyps are not only confined to the nose, but can also invade the surrounding sinuses, the traditional method of removing nasal polyps using a trap is prone to recurrence. Nasal endoscopic surgery can not only reach deeper and hidden areas and completely remove nasal polyps, but also reduce the recurrence rate of nasal polyps through surgical operations that conform to the physiological functions of the human body.
How to prevent recurrence of nasal polyps after surgery?
First of all, nasal polyps are completely removed by endoscopic surgery, which is a guarantee to reduce the recurrence rate after surgery. Secondly, it is important for individuals to avoid recurrent edema of the nasal mucosa after surgery by reducing colds and flu. A disease closely related to nasal polyps is allergic rhinitis. These patients often experience itchy nose, sneezing and runny nose during certain seasons of the year, when they smell certain odors or when they encounter hot or cold air changes. Patients after nasal polyp surgery should strictly follow the doctor’s requirements and go to the hospital for regular checkups. The doctor will remove small mucosal edema in time to avoid another major surgery. In addition, after nasal polyp surgery patients should take medication in time after a cold to prevent local irritation of the pus produced by sinusitis causing recurrence of nasal polyps.
The surgical removal of nasal polyps must be pathological examination The things that grow in the nasal cavity are not always nasal polyps, and may even be tumors. There are various disease possibilities for different ages. In infants and young children, there is cerebral fasciocerebral bulge, nasopharyngeal fibrovascular tumor in young people, nasal inversion papilloma in middle-aged and elderly people, and even nasal cancer, nasopharyngeal cancer, and local malignant transformation of nasal polyps. Therefore, the “nasal polyp”-like tissue removed by nasal polyp surgery must be examined pathologically to exclude the possibility of malignant transformation. Especially for patients with unilateral nasal masses, doctors often take partial sections of the masses for laboratory tests before nasal polyp surgery.