Endoscopic septoplasty is a time-honored surgical procedure with multiple variations. This paper focuses on a step-by-step surgical approach to perform a modified septoplasty procedure known as limited two-line resection. This surgical technique can be applied to correct a deviated nasal septum in the absence of an external nasal deformity.
This method can help to answer key questions in septoplastical field, such as how to provide effective and safe procedure, that use be to connect the deviated septum and improve later patency. The main advantage of this technique is that it facilitates preservation of the chondro-angular cartilage which is helpful in retaining the supporting framework and the rigidness of septum. At an appropriate time point before the surgery, confirm and locate the deviations and indications within the patient's nasal cavity by anterior rhinoscopy, endoscopy and computer tomography and ask the patients to assess their nose patency as a whole, using a visual analog scale.
One day before the surgery, remove the vibrissae in both nasal vestibules. On the day of the surgery, tilt the operating table 30 degrees to the dorsal elevated position and place the patient's head in a neutral, non-flexed, non-extended position. Next, place one piece of gauze soaked in a 1%tetracaine/1%epinephrine solution into each nasal cavity for five minutes to shrink the nasal mucosa.
Then, use the elevator to place the inferior turbinate toward the lateral wall of the nasal cavity. Use a needle attached to a five milliliter syringe to infiltrate the subperichondrial and subperiosteal planes of both sides of the septum with several milliliters of a 0.9%sodium chloride/0.1%epinephrine solution. Using a zero-degree endoscope and a number 15 blade, make a Killian incision at the mucocutaneous junction ipsilaterally on the side of the maximal deviation of the septal cartilage, starting as high in the septum as possible and continuing to the floor of the nasal cavity, curving posteriorly as the incision reaches the floor of the nasal cavity.
Raise the flap with an elevator and extend the elevation as high as possible upwards and as low to the floor of the nasal cavity downwards to fully expose the cartilaginous and bony septum on the convex side. Use a number 15 blade to make a vertical incision on the cartilage, inferior to the dorsum, anterior to the junction of the quadrangular cartilage and perpendicular to the plate of the ethmoid bone. Likewise, make a horizontal incision on the cartilage superior to the junction of the quadrangular cartilage, vomer bone and maxillary crest.
Elevate the contralateral mucoperiosteum to expose the bony septum bilaterally with the suction elevator and resect one quarter to one third of the original width of the cartilage in the anteroposterior dimension on the vertical incision and one quarter to one third of the original height of the cartilage in the vertical direction on the horizontal incision. Remove the thickening bony septal deviations and perform a partial fracture displacement to move the deviation back to the midline. When the posterior and inferior bony septa are clear of all thickness and deformities, use absorbable sutures to approximate the mucosal flaps with two parallel interrupted ligatures.
Then immediately pack the nasal cavity with two nasopores per cavity. In this representative study of 32 adult male and female patients, the reported nasal patency decreased from nearly eight on the visual analog scale before surgery to just over one six months after surgery, with the deviation having been successfully returned to the midline of the nasal cavity in most cases. After watching this video, you should have a good understanding of how to perform a limited, two-line resection septoplasty procedure.
