Early Septoplasty Versus Closed Reduction for Acute Nasoseptal Fracture: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis

Accurate management of acute nasoseptal fractures can mitigate cosmetic and functional complications. There is a lack of consensus on the ideal approach to manage acute nasoseptal fractures, which are often addressed with closed nasal and/or septal reduction (CN/SR) but sometimes addressed using an open approach with septoplasty. We aimed to systematically assess and compare outcomes of CN/SR versus open approaches to treat acute nasoseptal fractures.

PubMed, Scopus, and CINAHL.

Studies evaluating outcomes of adults with acute nasoseptal fractures treated within 3 weeks of injury with either CN/SR or open approach were included. Meta-analysis was performed to examine the pooled frequency of complications including persistent obstruction, cosmetic deformity, and need for revision surgery.

Of 1630 unique articles identified, 27 were included (63% retrospective, 29.6% prospective, 7.4% randomized controlled trial). Data included 1117 patients (n = 712 CN/SR, n = 423 open approach), with a mean age of 30.5 years. Patients who underwent CN/SR only were more likely to experience persistent obstruction compared to patients who underwent open approach (22.2% [95% confidence interval, CI, 8.7%-39.5%] vs 5.9% [95% CI, 2.4%-10.7%], P < .0001). Patients who underwent CN/SR were more likely to require revision surgery within 3 years (30.9% [95% CI, 15.8%-48.4%] vs 6.0% [95% CI, 3.3%-9.9%], P < .0001.

Patients with nasoseptal fractures who underwent open septoplasty in the acute period were less likely to experience complications. Prospective trials are needed to confirm results of this meta-analysis.