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Updated: Jun 7, 2026
Transcanalicular Diode Laser-assisted Dacryocystorhinostomy for the Treatment of Primary Acquired Nasolacrimal Duct Obstruction
Published on: October 13, 2017
Prognostic value of anterior rhinomanometry in diode laser turbinoplasty
Gerd Fabian Volk1, Mira Pantel, Orlando Guntinas-Lichius
1Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Friedrich-Schiller-Universität, Lessingstraße 2, D-07743 Jena, Germany. fabian.volk@med.uni-jena.de
Objective:
To identify objective criteria predicting the success of diode laser-assisted turbinoplasty.
Design:
Prospective before-and-after trial with follow-up of 8 weeks.
Setting:
Outpatient department of a tertiary referral center.
Patients:
Forty-one patients with nasal obstruction caused by hyperplastic inferior nasal turbinates.
Intervention:
Active anterior rhinomanometry with and without decongestion was used to assess the patients both before and after diode laser-assisted turbinate surgery. Surgery was performed under local anesthesia in "contact mode" using a continuous diode laser. In addition, a questionnaire assessed the subjective postoperative benefit.
Main Outcome Measures:
Presurgical effect of topical decongestion was correlated with postoperative improvement of nasal airflow and patients' subjective satisfaction.
Results:
Turbinoplasty significantly improved the mean (SD) nasal airflow by 37.1% (52.4%) (95% confidence interval [CI], 20.6%-53.7%), from 509.8 (189.2) cm³/s (95% CI, 450.1-569.5) to 660.9 (285.4) cm³/s (95% CI, 570.8-751.0) (P < .001). There was no significant correlation between patients' subjective satisfaction and improvement of nasal airflow postoperatively (r(s) = -0.01; P = .93). There was a strong correlation between the presurgical effect of topical decongestion and the improvement of nasal airflow by surgery (r(s) = 0.42; P = .01). The correlation was even stronger when the absolute values were adjusted by the preoperative nasal airflow baseline (r(s) = 0.55; P = .01).
Conclusions:
Rhinomanometry with topical decongestion has a high predictive value for the objective outcome of diode laser-assisted turbinoplasty. Thus, performing a rhinomanometry with topical decongestion and calculating the relative spread of decongestion can help to estimate the patients' benefit from diode laser-assisted turbinate surgery.
