Hope I spelled that right.
Mr. brown suffers from severe chronic sinusitis. He also suffers from “never going to the doctor-itis”, and would probably be the last guy on earth to willingly undergo that surgery where they carve out a lot of your sinus tissue to open you up. I can’t say as I blame him. I can’t imagine anything more painful and uncomfortable than having my sinuses reamed out and then packed with gauze for several days.
However, I was trying out that new search engine today - “cuil”, which claims to be the best search engine ever. I tested it by looking for a hard-to-find sinusitis site. It not only found it right away, but it linked to some medical articles, like this one, which discussed “balloon sinusplasty”. It’s a new procedure which introduces balloons into your sinuses, just like during angioplasty, and inflates them to squeeze open your sinuses. They claim minimal pain and down time compared to the old surgery.
Anybody heard of this, or know anyone who has undergone it? If it works, it would be awesome, particularly for folks unwilling to have it done the horrible old way.
I had endoscopic sinus surgery (not sinuplasty) earlier this year. It varies depending on the surgery and surgeon, but in my case there was no packing left in there, just some absorbent gel things that were expelled after a few days in a way I’d rather not describe nor remember.
It was painful for several days, but most of the pain seemed to be from where they’d undeviated and stitched my septum, something that may or may not be needed in your husband’s case (if it is, it would be done in addition to sinuplasty anyway).
From what little I know, sinuplasty is mainly used for unblocking the frontal sinuses (in the forehead). Depending on where your husband’s problems lie, he may or may not be a good candidate. My problems were in the maxillary (cheek) and ethmoid (between nose and eye) sinuses. I don’t think the surgery was a complete “scraping out” of the sinuses, which is what I intially thought also… more of a clearing all the blockages (e.g., polyps) and enlarging the openings so everything can drain, and ideally thus heal normally.
In my case the sinus infection did clear up, but unfortunately there hasn’t been a dramatic improvement in my sinus-related symptoms. I still get frequent congestion and drip, etc., that doesn’t seem to be related to allergies. I’d hoped for more dramatic results, but it’s been several months so I assume this is as good as it gets.
Sorry I don’t have any good information about sinuplasty–only my anecdote of having gone through the “horrible old way.” Which wasn’t all that horrible, but has left me somewhat disappointed.
Hi Teela.
I have not had this procedure done but am very encouraged. It is supposed to be MUCH less invasive than surgery.
A Google search found this which REALLY MAKES me want to ask my doc.
http://www.truveo.com/Balloon-Sinuplasty-by-Dr-Raval-MD/id/2305843009849978066
Let us know what you decide to do. For me traditional surgery is not an option because I am a bit of a chicken! But I like that the balloon thing HELPS MY BODY do it’s thing on its own!
Be Well
-LBH
Haven’t had the balloon thing, but last year I did have a turbinate reduction and my deviated septum fixed.
Downtime wasn’t all that bad, the worst was the itching from the stitches and not being able to blow my nose for two weeks. It was more uncomfortable than painful.
I would do it again in a heartbeat. I can actually breathe normally!!