Contributing Authors: Isam Alobid, MD, PhD¹, Nithin D. Adappa, MD², Henry P. Barham, MD³, Thiago Bezerra, MD⁴, Nadieska Caballero, MD⁵, Eugene G. Chang, MD⁶, Gaurav Chawdhary, MD⁷, Philip Chen, MD⁸, John P. Dahl, MD, PhD⁹, Anthony Del Signore, MD¹⁰, Carrie Flanagan, MD¹¹, Daniel N. Frank, PhD¹², Kai Fruth, MD, PhD¹³, Anne Getz, MD¹⁴, Samuel Greig, MD¹⁵, Elisa A. Illing, MD¹⁶, David W. Jang, MD¹⁷, Yong Gi Jung, MD¹⁸, Sammy Khalili, MD, MSc¹⁹, Cristobal Langdon, MD²⁰, Kent Lam, MD²¹, Stella Lee, MD²², Seth Lieberman, MD²³, Patricia Loftus, MD²⁴, Luis Macias‐Valle, MD²⁵, R. Peter Manes, MD²⁶, Jill Mazza, MD²⁷, Leandra Mfuna, MD²⁸, David Morrissey, MD²⁹, Sue Jean Mun, MD³⁰, Jonathan B. Overdevest, MD, PhD³¹, Jayant M. Pinto, MD³², Jain Ravi, MD³³, Douglas Reh, MD³⁴, Peta L. Sacks, MD³⁵, Michael H. Saste, MD³⁶, John Schneider, MD, MA³⁷, Ahmad R. Sedaghat, MD, PhD³⁸, Zachary M. Soler, MD³⁹, Neville Teo, MD⁴⁰, Kota Wada, MD⁴¹, Kevin Welch, MD⁴², Troy D. Woodard, MD⁴³, Alan Workman⁴⁴, Yi Chen Zhao, MD⁴⁵, David Zopf, MD⁴⁶Contributing Author Affiliations: ¹Universidad de Barcelona; ²University of Pennsylvania; ³Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center; ⁴Universidade de São Paulo; ⁵ENT Specialists of Illinois; ⁶University of Arizona; ⁷University of Oxford; ⁸University of Texas; ⁹University of Indiana; ¹⁰Mount Sinai Beth Israel; ¹¹Emory University; ¹²University of Colorado; ¹³Wiesbaden, Germany; ¹⁴University of Colorado; ¹⁵University of Alberta; ¹⁶University of Alabama at Birmingham; ¹⁷Duke University; ¹⁸Sungkyunkwan University; ¹⁹University of Pennsylvania; ²⁰Universidad de Barcelona; ²¹Northwestern University; ²²University of Pittsburgh; ²³New York University; ²⁴Emory University; ²⁵University of British Columbia; ²⁶Yale University School of Medicine; ²⁷Private Practice; ²⁸Department of Otolaryngology, Hôtel‐Dieu Hospital, Centre de Recherche du Centre Hospitalier de l'Université de Montréal; ²⁹University of Adelaide; ³⁰Pusan National University; ³¹University of California, San Francisco; ³²University of Chicago; ³³University of Auckland; ³⁴Johns Hopkins University; ³⁵University of New South Wales, Australia; ³⁶Stanford University; ³⁷Washington University; ³⁸Harvard Medical School; ³⁹Medical University of South Carolina; ⁴⁰Singapore General Hospital; ⁴¹Taho University; ⁴²Northwestern University; ⁴³Cleveland Clinic Foundation; ⁴⁴University of Pennsylvania; ⁴⁵University of Adelaide; ⁴⁶University of Michigan

In the past 130 years, many surgical procedures for turbinate reduction have been developed. We analyzed the long-term efficacy of 6 of these surgical techniques (turbinectomy, laser cautery, electrocautery, cryotherapy, submucosal resection, and submucosal resection with lateral displacement) over a 6-year follow-up period. We randomly divided 382 patients into 6 therapeutic groups and surgically treated them at the Department of Otorhinolaryngology of the University of Siena. After 6 years, only submucosal resection resulted in optimal long-term normalization of nasal patency and in restoration of mucociliary clearance and local secretory IgA production to a physiological level with few postoperative complications (p < .001). The addition of lateral displacement of the inferior turbinate improved the long-term results. We recommend, in spite of the greater surgical skill required, submucosal resection combined with lateral displacement as the first-choice technique for the treatment of nasal obstruction due to hypertrophy of the inferior turbinates.

Passali D, et al. Asia Pac Allergy. 2018 Jan;8:e7. https://doi.org/10.5415/apallergy.2018.8.e7