Abstract
Endoscopic sinus surgery (ESS) is a globally disseminated, well-documented procedure. To determine whether post-ESS wound healing would benefit from wet dressing using calcium alginate fiber (Algoderm®) nasal packing, we monitored 173 subjects—106 men and 67 women— with nasoparanasal disease treated using ESS between April 2005 and March 2008. We evaluated postoperative pain on a numerical rating scale (0–5), and the postoperative complications of nasal bleeding and infection of the 173, 116 patients (67%), scored pain as ≥2 on the day after surgery, but dropped to <20%, on the day after surgery on postoperative day (POD) 7, 16% patients felt strong pain when Algoderm® was removed.
Postoperative complications involved 9 subjects (5.2%) with postoperative bleeding and 78 (45.1%) with high fever (≥37.5°C). Almost all fever lasted until POD2. When Algoderm® was removed, infection-free wound healing was confirmed in almost all patients. Algoderm® had no foul smell in any case.
Nasal packing with Algoderm® thus appears beneficial postoperatively in ESS-treated subjects.
