[The effect of postoperative nasal cavity adhesion on the long-term results of endoscopic sinus surgery].

OBJECTIVE: To observe the effect of postoperative nasal cavity adhesion on the long-term results of endoscopic sinus surgery. METHOD: From October, 1994 to September 1998, 845 patients with sinusitis and polyps under gone endoscopic sinus surgery in our hospital. There were 132 cases with unilateral lesion and 713 cases with bilateral lesion, total of 1558 lateral lesions. All the lesions were classified according to the Haikou (1997) typing and staging system of sinusitis. All the cases were follow-up over 1 year. RESULT: According to the Haikou cure criterion, 1280 sides were cured one year after operation. The total cure rate was 82.2%. The cure rates of type I, type II stage 1, type II stage 2, type II stage 3 and type III patients were 91%, 98.9%, 82.8%, 75% and 61.2% respectively. Total of 278 sides were failure. 151 sides of them had nasal cavity adhesion (54.3%). The types of the nasal cavity adhesion were middle turbinate adhesion to the lateral wall of the middle meatus, to the inferior turbinate and to the nasal septum. CONCLUSION: The postoperative nasal cavity adhesion was the main factor which can cause the failure of the endoscopic sinus surgery. The middle turbinate played an important role in preventing nasal cavity adhesion.