Impact of Suture Conchopexy on Olfaction and the Risk of Middle Turbinate Lateralization

Middle turbinate (MT) lateralization is one of the common causes of endoscopic sinus surgery (ESS) failure and often necessitate revision surgery. To avoid this sequala, surgeons have attempted several methods to keep the MT medialized. One such method is conchopexy. However, the impact of this procedure on olfaction remains unclear.

A retrospective cohort study was conducted to compare the subjective olfaction outcome of ESS in patients for whom conchopexy was performed and in controls where a spacer was applied in the middle meatus. Also, the risk of lateralization in both techniques was compared. In addition, other factors related to the outcome of olfaction, such as age, gender, type of chronic rhinosinusitis (CRS), and partial resection of the MT, were assessed.

Out of 299 patients with CRS who underwent ESS, 134 met our inclusion criteria. In total, 62.7% were male and 37.3% were female, and their mean age was 37.4 years. Sixty-one patients (cases) underwent conchopexy, and 73 patients (controls) underwent insertion of a middle meatus spacer. None of the subjects in both groups developed anosmia or hyposmia as a complication. The improvement of olfaction was almost equal in both groups (for anosmia: 92.9% in cases vs. 87.5% in control; for hyposmia 87.1% in cases vs. 89.7% in control). In patients with anosmia, the improvement of olfaction was lower when the MT was partially resected (71.4% vs. 95.7%); whereas, in patients with hyposmia, the improvement was not significantly different (87% vs. 93.8% when the MT was partially resected). The improvement of olfaction was higher in patients with allergic fungal sinusitis (AFS) and CRS with nasal polyps (CRSwNP) than in those with CRS without nasal polyps (CRSsNP). The MT lateralization was almost equal in both groups (9.0% in cases vs. 9.6% in controls).

Conchopexy does not affect olfaction subjectively. The improvement of olfaction is related more to the underlying disease, i.e., less improvement occurs in cases of CRSsNP. The risk of lateralization is equal with either conchopexy or middle meatus spacer.