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Permalink Reply by RockRpsgt on April 25, 2010 at 4:49pm

I am interested in this as well. My sinus problems have not gotten any better. The only thing that has not been tried is Allegra. I was in a pretty bad car accident when I was 16. My sinus cavities had to be reconstructed. This compiled with some not so great decisions in my 20's have left my sinuses a mess. I believe that my next step will be to see the ENT.

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Permalink Reply by Ian Swinson on April 26, 2010 at 7:53pm

My wife has sleep apnea, and a CPAP machine. Her brother told her about balloon sinuplasty as not only a sinusitis treatment but also for chronic snoring. Helps improve air flow, is the idea.
No idea if this has merit but the balloon part caught my eye. I can tell you that my wife would love to have an option besides the machine.
Best,
IS

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Permalink Reply by Steven Y. Park, MD on April 27, 2010 at 9:51am

It's another tool in the toolbox for sinus surgeons. I think it's a useful one for selected patients, but my one concern is that it requires fluoroscopy, using a real-time x-ray machine during the case.

The vast majority of sinus issues can be treated without surgery. Even when you do the surgery, you're not getting rid of what's causing the inflammation and swelling (sinuplasty included).

I did a study many years ago looking at patients who underwent sinus or nasal surgery and while most did well, there was always 10 to 15% that didn't feel better or had recurrent symptoms. What I found was that almost 80% of these patients had significant obstructive sleep apnea. Now that I look for sleep apnea and treat it in everyone with chronic sinus disease, the rate at which these patients need to go on to surgery has plummeted more than 80%.

If you have massive polyps and blocks your nose completely, and it's confirmed on CT, then sinuplasty alone won't work for you. In many cases, people with severe sinus pain and discomfort have normal CTs—in this case, it's thought to be due to a variation of a migraine —in your sinuses.

One area of surgery that I'm more lenient about is nasal surgery (septal, turbinate and nasal valve surgery). Breathing well is critical for a number of very important reasons.

While it may help your sinus problems, don't count on this procedure curing your sleep apnea. Helping you to breathe better through your nose is a good idea, but in most cases won't allow you to stop using CPAP or oral appliances.

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Permalink Reply by Ian Swinson on April 27, 2010 at 11:33am

Thanks doc. Very helpful. Thanks for taking the time to reply. My brother in law had the balloon sinuplasty for his chronic sinusitis and is very happy. Great info to have on applying it to breathing and especially sleep apnea.
Have a great day.

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Permalink Reply by sleepycarol on April 27, 2010 at 8:31pm

Thanks Dr. Park for the info.

I had never heard of this Mike. Interesting what they can do now days.

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Permalink Reply by Mike on May 15, 2010 at 2:13pm

just saw that my local hospital, which is one of the nation's foremost -- LIJ/ North Shore Medical Center -- is promoting balloon sinuplasty in its Spring newsletter. They say its a "minimally invasive treatment" for Sinusitis. seems like something cutting edge.

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Permalink Reply by Mike on June 8, 2010 at 3:36pm

some recent local press on Balloon Sinuplasty: http://wcbstv.com/health/sinusitis.balloon.sinuplasty.2.1737974.html

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Permalink Reply by Jo E on June 8, 2010 at 11:38pm

This sounds to me like it would be of limited use in treatment of OSA. It sounds like it would be of little use for most cases of OSA. It could help if the OSA patient has sinus congestion but it does not sound like it would really deal with the cause of many types of OSA.

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