Office-Based Sinus Procedures: A benefits guide
You can attest to how incapacitating sinus problems can be if you’ve ever had them. Sinus problems can have a significant impact on quality of life, causing everything from headaches and congestion to chest pain and difficulties breathing. To assist ease these symptoms and enhance general health, a number of sinus operations can be performed in a doctor’s office. Often the fear of having to have them done in the operating room keeps the patients from seeking treatment. There are a number of benefits we have found in performing these procedures in the office vs having them done in the operating room. At Del Rey MD we have found the following benefits and have been very successful in offering them to our thousands of sinus patients. These procedures include balloon sinus dilation, septoplasty, polyp removal, turbinate reduction, nasal valve treatments, and posterior nasal nerve ablation.
Benefits
1. Safety – As there is no general anesthesia administered. The overall safety is enhanced. There is much less concern for adverse events affecting one’s respiratory or cardiovascular system.
2. Blood Loss – Most general anesthesia agents actually increase blood flow to the mucus membranes of the nose. Avoiding administering this will lead to overall less blood loss during the procedures.
3. Minimal trauma – Overall as the surgeon has to be extra diligent and careful with the maneuvers, there is usually significantly less trauma to the nasal lining. Thus, there is less healing that needs to occur.
4. Instantaneous Patient feedback – as the patient is awake enough to give feedback they can often let the procedure know immediately if they are breathing better or if something is not quite right, neither of which are possible under general anesthesia.
5. Cost – there can be a significant cost saving for the patient and even the insurance a majority of the operative room infrastructure costs are not needed.
6. Scheduling – as no operating room staff is needed, the scheduling is usually much less complex.
7. Comfort – In our practice we have been able to completely avoid any uncomfortable packing, sutures, or plastic splints that is commonly used in the operating room.
Del Rey MD has been a leader in offering office-based sinus operations to patients in the Los Angeles, Southern California, and even National level since 2012. Due to the minimally invasive nature of these treatments, patients are typically able to go home the same day and return to their regular routines within a few days. You should talk to your doctor about the many sinus procedures that can be performed in the office if you have sinus problems that don’t seem to go away or contact us to see if you can be our next patient to breathe better!