Patients who have tried numerous over-the-counter sprays, sinus rinses, steroid medications, antihistamines or oral antibiotics without finding long-term relief often turn to in-office balloon sinuplasty for long-term solutions. This procedure is most frequently used to address chronic sinus symptoms that do not respond well to other therapies.
An Otolaryngologist (ENT), or Ear, Nose and Throat specialist, typically administers this procedure under local anesthesia and sedation in their office setting. The entire procedure typically lasts less than an hour.
The Balloon
Many individuals with chronic sinusitis suffer from discomfort and pain, often including nosebleeds, headaches and blocked sinuses. If this is impacting your daily activities and making life miserable for you, over-the-counter medications and nasal rinses have not provided sufficient relief from symptoms; you may even have tried medical solutions but these haven’t helped either! If this sounds familiar and you want some freedom back from sinusitis – look no further – The Cleveland Clinic provides a safe, quick minimally-invasive procedure known as Balloon Sinuplasty for effective relief of symptoms – don’t wait another minute more!
Before the introduction of Balloon Sinuplasty, Traditional Functional Endoscopic Sinus Surgery (FESS) was the only effective surgical option when medications failed to provide relief. FESS involves extracting bone and tissue for removal through general anesthesia at a surgery center or hospital, with long and sometimes painful recoveries afterwards. Balloon Sinuplasty offers much less invasive alternatives that your physician can perform more comfortably within their office setting with local anesthesia.
Surgeons use an endoscope, a thin tube equipped with light and camera at one end, to locate the entry to a sinus cavity. Once they find it, they insert a balloon catheter over their endoscope wire and slowly advance it into the sinus space until they find where it needs to go – then once there they inflate it to expand sinus walls similar to how heart surgeons open blocked arteries with balloon angioplasty procedures.
Once the balloon has been inflated, excess mucus and pus is cleared from sinus openings using a saline solution. Once this step has been completed, the doctor removes the catheter, leaving sinuses clearer than ever.
Patients have experienced immediate relief of symptoms following this straightforward in-office procedure. X-rays reveal healthier sinus passages without obstruction. Following completion, patients can return to their daily activities immediately without the discomfort, cost, and recovery time associated with traditional surgery procedures.
Endoscope
Chronic sinusitis can be painful and disruptive, and can even lead to sleep apnea; but thanks to minimally invasive balloon sinuplasty procedures available today it can be treated. Blocked or inflamed sinus passages obstruct normal drainage leading to congestion that then leads to headaches and jaw pain resulting in headaches, as well as other health complications including sleep apnea. The good news is that its treatment options include minimally invasive procedures known as balloon sinuplasty procedures.
Balloon sinuplasty works by dilatation of three major nasal sinuses to restore normal drainage, decreasing or even eliminating symptoms associated with sinusitis. The procedure can be conducted in your doctor’s office under local anesthesia with little recovery time afterwards.
An endoscope is a thin tube equipped with a camera at its tip that transmits images to a video monitor in the examination room, where your doctor uses this screen to examine any area of interest in your upper digestive tract (for instance a stomach endoscopy) or take samples for biopsy using its camera.
Before your examination, your physician will gather details regarding your health history and current medications to assess whether sedation or general anesthesia will be required during an endoscopy procedure.
At your examination, you will sit comfortably on a reclining chair while the doctor applies topical anesthetic to both nose and mouth areas. Once anesthetized, they will insert an endoscope – an instrument equipped with light sources and lenses – through which an endoscope can be inserted to view any areas of interest within your upper respiratory system.
The tube is equipped with a water channel that transports liquid from an endoscope’s water bottle via a conduit running along its universal cord to an air/water valve on its air/water valve, where physicians can depress this valve to stop feeding water into their gastrointestinal tracts in favor of insufflation (see Fig. 3.9).
The procedure is quick, safe, and requires only local anesthesia – with less than 1% chance of complications arising as a result of it. Because it doesn’t take very long, you should be back at work or undertaking other regular daily activities within several days after completion.
Catheter
At this procedure, a safe and flexible wire and catheter will be guided through your nose until they reach the sinus opening. A balloon on one of these catheters will then be inflated to remodel and widen this opening without damaging its lining, allowing drainage of sinuses more effectively while simultaneously decreasing swelling and discomfort associated with surgery. It can even be performed in-office using local anesthesia – less invasive than traditional sinus surgery!
After numbing the area with topical anesthetics, your ENT physician will insert the catheter into one of your sinus openings and slowly inflate its balloon to unblock your sinuses. When completed, they’ll deflate and remove it before repeating this process as necessary.
While this treatment has a high success rate, it may not be suitable for everyone. Before considering surgery as a possible solution to chronic sinusitis that does not respond to standard treatments like saline rinses, nasal sprays, over-the-counter medication and other medical interventions; you should first discuss it with an ENT doctor and understand what you can expect from this procedure. It should only be done as an effective preventive measure and not because long-term damage could occur otherwise.
The ENT Specialists of Austin in Austin and Cedar Park, TX specialize in innovative sinus treatments. Contact us now to set up a personal consultation with one of our physicians!
Balloon Sinuplasty is an FDA-approved sinus procedure that is proven to ease blockages and symptoms associated with sinusitis. As a minimally invasive solution that requires less recovery time than traditional surgeries and medication options, it offers an alternative treatment that is much cheaper – most insurance providers even cover it! If you are suffering from symptoms of congestion, facial pain or pressure associated with sinusitis visit our practice for a consultation and let us determine whether balloon sinuplasty might help relieve them! You can call or use our online scheduling tool for scheduling appointments – we look forward to seeing you soon!
Recovery
Balloon sinuplasty surgery offers numerous advantages over traditional sinus surgery, with minimal bleeding and scarring occurring during recovery, improved effectiveness of results due to preservation of normal anatomy of sinuses and mucus lining, quicker recovery timeframe and most patients returning to daily activities within days or so after this form of sinus treatment.
Beginning the process involves sitting comfortably on an exam chair while being administered a topical decongestant and spraying it with an anesthetic spray. Next, your provider will use an endoscope (a thin tube with light and camera on one end) to view your nasal and sinus passages and determine the ideal location to widen.
Once they find your sinus opening, doctors will insert a catheter with an inflatable balloon on the end and attach it over a wire leading into your sinus. Slowly inflating this balloon reshapes and widens your sinus passage without removing bone or tissue, thus facilitating regular drainage that alleviates symptoms associated with sinusitis.
Once your sinus opening has been widened, your provider will wash out and empty out your sinus cavity before taking steps to clear out your nasal passages and suction out any remaining debris from your nose. The entire process usually takes around an hour; most patients experience some pressure during this procedure but it should not be painful.
Within several days, you should experience relief from sinus pain and other symptoms of your sinus infection. If they continue, see your physician who may perform a sinus rinse or prescribe antibiotics to clear up your infection. In the meantime, sleep with your head elevated and use saline rinses to flush your sinuses regularly.
Balloon Sinuplasty is an FDA-approved procedure for people living with chronic sinusitis that doesn’t respond to standard treatments such as saline rinses, decongestants and nasal or oral corticosteroids. If this procedure sounds promising to you, speak with your primary care physician about getting a referral to an ear, nose and throat specialist.
