Abstract:

Objective: One of the nasal concha pneumotization forms is concha bullosa. It often occurs in fetal life as an anatomical variant. It is mostly encountered in the middle turbinate and inferior concha bullosa (ICB) is extremely rare. In most cases, ICB is asymptomatic and diagnosed incidentally. The treatment of symptomatic cases is turbinoplasty surgery. Our aim in this study is to share our experience by presenting our cases in which this rare surgery was applied. Material and Methods: In our study, 6 patients who underwent turbinoplasty with a diagnosis of ICB with a retrospective screening performed between 2015-2021 were included in the study. All patients' surgical procedures were performed under general anesthesia by the same surgeon. Turbinoplasty was performed with the endoscopic method, taking care to protect the medial mucosa of the inferior turbinate. Results: Six patients aged 14-27 years were included in the study. The presenting complaint was nasal obstruction in all patients. Endoscopic turbinoplasty was performed in all patients, septoplasty was performed in four patients and endoscopic sinus surgery was performed in two patients. No complications were observed. Conclusion: In the literature, it has been reported that the frequency of ICB is less than 1% and most of the cases are unilateral. Therefore, inferior concha turbinoplasty is one of the rare otorhinolaryngology applications. In this surgery, care should be taken to protect the medial mucosa of the inferior turbinate. Thus, complications such as empty nose syndrome can be prevented.

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