Liz: Revision Septoplasty

Follow Dr. Nassif into the operating room as he performs a revision septoplasty to straighten the nasal septum.

Dr. Nassif: With Liz’s surgery we had to perform a revision septoplasty. We’re just starting the septoplasty, she’s had a previous septoplasty before and there’s not enough cartilage to use for grafting of the nose. When I felt inside of her nose where the cartilage I want to use is available, I noticed it was gone. But the front of the cartilage was deviated to the left and then also back behind the cartilage the septum turns into bone. That was also deviated to the left. So what’s really really difficult about a revision septoplasty is we have to remove the deviated cartilage and bone.

But when we’re entering an area where all the cartilage has been taken out you just have tissue on tissue, you have to try to open up that space. So there’s a high risk of getting a tear in both of those pieces of tissue. If you do that you get something called a septo-perforation which is a hole inside your nasal tissue. In this situation thank goodness that didn’t happen.

We just finished the septoplasty and what was happening is there’s a bone called a spur on the floor of the nose and it went all the way back in the left and we removed all of that. We were able to straighten out the front part of the cartilage that was deviated. We were also able to remove the bone which is back behind; that was deviated and that also cleared up her airway beautifully.

Today it’s her three month post-op. She looks great, she’s still healing and she’s still swollen. She can breathe a lot better than she could before surgery. She’s exactly where she should be and right now the way it looks I think this hopefully will be her last surgery. I’m extremely happy with where she’s at right now, I love her nose and it’s only going to get better.