radiofrequency surgery for nasal congestion

I have head of a procedure called Turbinate Somnoplasty which is a new technique to ease nasal congestion. It uses radio frequency to shrink the swollen membranes inside the nose. It is supposed to be completely painless and is done in as short as 10 minutes. HAS ANYONE HERE TRIED IT? WHAT WAS THE RESULT? HOW LONG DID THE RELIEF LAST?

Thanks,
Gary

yes... had it in early January.

So far it's been good. Have to keep up with the rinsing... but it's wonderful to be able to breathe!

Were you able to breathe through your nose the first night following your surgery?

The first night I had a ton of drainage... went through about a half a box of kleenx... but was on my machine that night.

Watched it done on "The Doctors" and it was over in about 5 mins. It's a probe (blunt-nosed sorta fat needle) that was pressed against the turbinates...looks like it pressed into but not sure about that, didn't see any blood. Looked painless but they might have sprayed the gal's nose...missed the very first of the segment. The doc says his patients have gotten a lot of relief. It does sound very promising.

Cflame1,

You have a full face mask, so although you slept thru the night with your mask I still don't know if you were able to breathe THRU YOUR NOSE the first night.

Thanks,
Gary

wouldnt that work for throat tissue as well?

This works by RF heating. Radiofrequency energy, especially in the microwave range, cannot penetrate your body to any great depth due to the 'skin effect'. So, they use it to heat the turbinate tissues locally. This causes the affected tissues to atrophy. RF heating is harmless in other respects.

garyland wrote:Cflame1,

You have a full face mask, so although you slept thru the night with your mask I still don't know if you were able to breathe THRU YOUR NOSE the first night.

Thanks,
Gary

When I said that I could breathe I meant through my nose... was kind of like a bad cold for a day.

Muse-Inc wrote:Watched it done on "The Doctors" and it was over in about 5 mins. It's a probe (blunt-nosed sorta fat needle) that was pressed against the turbinates...looks like it pressed into but not sure about that, didn't see any blood. Looked painless but they might have sprayed the gal's nose...missed the very first of the segment. The doc says his patients have gotten a lot of relief. It does sound very promising.

My doc used lidocaine and something else... yeah the same stuff that the dentist uses. He put it on something and stuck it up my nose until he was ready to work on it, then he pulled it out. And no I didn't want to watch... so I didn't.