Sinus Surgery Pain Reduced with New Technology
The medical technicians are constantly devising new tools and methods to make surgery less invasive. Tools get smaller, endoscopes take pictures within the body, MRI scans provide clarity that X rays can’t hope to approach. As the invasive nature of surgery is reduced, recovery time is reduced. The process may only require a local anesthetic instead of a general, and the patient goes home at the end of the day.
With many of the recent surgical innovations, there is also a reduction in pain associated with both the procedure and the recovery. Swelling is reduced, inflammation is reduced, and so painful recovery is reduced as well.
An interesting innovation created for sinus surgery bears some acknowledgement as a remarkably creative idea. Chronic sinus problems are miserable, but so, traditionally, is the surgery to correct the problem. Part of that surgery requires that the nose be packed after the procedure is completed, in order to help stop post-op bleeding. The packing material not only applies pressure internally, it also absorbs blood and basically holds the nose and sinuses in place while the body goes through the initial recovery process.
Usually having dressings removed as surgical recovery proceeds is a pleasant sign of progress. In the case of sinus surgery however, it is an extremely painful process that many patients dread. The packing material is well up into the sinuses and pulling it out can really hurt.
Dr. Jay Dutton, an otolaryngologist at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago, has devised a gel that serves to replace the cotton and temporary sponges traditionally used to pack the post-operative sinus cavity and nose. It is concocted with the patient’s own blood.
The patient donates a blood sample from which plasma is extracted. That is a combination of red and white cells and platelets. The plasma is combined with a cow hormone called thrombin, known for its ability to cause rapid blood clotting. The mixture is sprayed into the sinuses after the surgical procedure and, according to Doctor Dutton, “As soon as it hits the sinuses, within 30 seconds it forms a gel the consistency of Jell-O.”
The mixture includes the platelets for clotting purposes, the white cells to fight infection and the hormone, which is introduced to speed healing. The fact that this compound is made from the patient’s own blood eliminates the possibility of an adverse reaction. Gradually, the gel is absorbed into the body.
Thus there is no uncomfortable packing, no bandage on the nose, no painful extraction on a return visit to the doctor’s office. A small study was conducted with sixteen patients who received the gel treatment and a control group that was treated with traditional packing. The patients receiving gel reported less pain during initial recovery and no adverse reactions. And, of course, the painful extraction of the sinus packing was eliminated altogether.
