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Updated: May 20, 2026
Endoscopic Septoplasty with Limited Two-line Resection: Minimally Invasive Surgery for Septal Deviation
Published on: June 20, 2018
Functional endoscopic sinus surgery (FESS) alone versus balloon catheter sinuplasty (BCS) and ethmoidectomy: a
Prasad John Thottam1, Michael Haupert, Sonal Saraiya
1Detroit Medical Center, United States; The Children's Hospital of Michigan, United States. pthottam@gmail.com
Objective:
To evaluate whether the addition of BCS (balloon catheter sinuplasty) would improve the treatment outcome in children with chronic rhinosinusitis (CRS) compared to FESS (functional endoscopic sinus surgery).
Study Design:
Two-group, retrospective cohort with blinded chart review comparison.
Setting:
Children's Hospital of Michigan, Detroit, MI.
Subjects And Methods:
Chart review of 15 pediatric patients who underwent BCS with ethmoidectomy and 16 who underwent FESS from 2008 to 2011 for treatment of CRS in a tertiary care, university affiliated, pediatric institution. Pre-operative CT-scans as well as pre and post-operative sinus symptoms and medications were compared. Post-surgical outcome was examined using chi square analysis.
Results:
Mean age of children at the time of the procedure was 9.3 (SD=4.19; range=3-17). Both groups had similar pre-surgical Lund-Mackay CT CRS scores (FESS: mean=9.33 and t=0.67; balloon: mean=10.58, t=0.68, and p=0.51). Analyses identified significant post-treatment reductions in overall symptoms and needed interventions in both treatment groups. Side-by-side post-operative comparison of patients who underwent balloon sinuplasty to FESS demonstrated statistically significant post-operative difference between the two groups in antibiotic requirement, sinus congestion and headaches. Though not statistically significant, 62.5% of FESS patients and 80.0% of BCS patients (χ(2)=1.15) reported improvement in their overall sinus symptoms post-operatively.
Conclusion:
Both BCS and FESS are suitable treatments for CRS in children. Both treatments significantly reduced CRS complaints post-operatively and had similar overall results. BCS patients required significantly fewer antibiotics post-operatively for CRS related disease when compared to FESS. Larger prospective studies with long-term data are needed to further evaluate.
