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Office-based blue laser therapy for inferior turbinate hypertrophy: a pilot study

  • Rhinology
  • Published:
European Archives of Oto-Rhino-Laryngology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Purpose

To investigate the subjective effect of office-based blue laser therapy for inferior turbinate hypertrophy in patients with nasal obstruction.

Methods

Patients with nasal obstruction who underwent office-based blue laser for the inferior turbinate hypertrophy between October 2022 and December 2023 were included in the study. The two outcome measures used to gauge the improvement in nasal obstruction and success of surgery were the Nasal Obstruction Symptom Evaluation (NOSE) scale and the Visual Analogue Scale (VAS). Patient’s level of comfort during the procedure was also rated using a 10-point VAS scale.

Results

A total of 14 patients were included in this study. The mean age of the study group was 41.47 ± 18.52 and the F/M ratio was 4.67. All patients reported significant improvement in nasal breathing. The mean NOSE score decreased significantly from 13.07 ± 3.89 pre-operatively to 2.64 ± 2.43 post-operatively (p = 0.002). Similarly, the mean VAS score decreased from 7.43 ± 0.85 to 2.0 ± 1.57 (p = 0.002) following surgery. The procedure was well-tolerated by all participants and the mean total score ranged from 6 to 9 with an average of 7.59 ± 1.34.

Conclusion

Office-based blue laser therapy for inferior turbinate hypertrophy may be an effective treatment modality for nasal obstruction from the patient’s perspective. Although the procedures were tolerated well with no complications noted, these results should be cautiously interpreted until studies using objective measures are conducted.

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Data availability

The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

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Funding

The authors did not receive support from any organization for the submitted work.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery, American University of Beirut Medical Center, Beirut, Lebanon

    Abdul-Latif Hamdan, Jad Hosri, Yara Yammine, Maher Kasty, Patrick Abou Raji Feghali, Lana Ghzayel & Elie Alam

  2. Faculty of Medicine, American University of Beirut, Beirut, Lebanon

    Nader Nawfal

Authors
  1. Abdul-Latif Hamdan
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  2. Jad Hosri
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  7. Lana Ghzayel
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  8. Elie Alam
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Contributions

All authors contributed to the study’s conception and design. Material preparation, data collection, and analysis were performed by Jad Hosri, Yara Yammine, Patrick Abou Raji Feghali and Lana Ghzayel. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Abdul-Latif Hamdan, Jad Hosri, Yara Yammine and Nader Nawfal. Critical review and editing were done by Elie Alam and Maher Kasti. All authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Elie Alam.

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Ethical approval

This study was performed in line with the principles of the Declaration of Helsinki. Approval was granted by the Institutional Review Board of the American University of Beirut (IRB ID: BIO-2022-0280).

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Hamdan, AL., Hosri, J., Yammine, Y. et al. Office-based blue laser therapy for inferior turbinate hypertrophy: a pilot study. Eur Arch Otorhinolaryngol (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00405-024-08781-z

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