Medtronic announces results of turbinoplasty study

The results of a ten-year study on nasal obstruction have been announced by medical products group Medtronic, which said the outcome was “favourable”.

Published in the February issue of Archives of Otolarynology – Head and Neck Surgery, the report concluded that patients suffering from nasal obstruction had “excellent resolution” when treated with Medtronic’s inferior turbinoplasty microderbiding technique.

The long-term results of the study discovered that these patients exhibited a similar outcome to those who did not experience nasal obstruction.

Some 341 patients were treated with microdebrider turbinoplasty, while 308 normal subjects were monitored but not treated.

A total of 91.3 per cent of those in the study group remained free of the condition after a decade, while 96.7 per cent of the normal group experienced no nasal obstruction.

“There are no existing treatments that have proven to be this effective during this long period of time,” said Dr Carlos Yanez of the American British Medical Centre. He also authored the study.

“The microdebriding technique significantly improves patient quality of life and offers relatively few postoperative complications.”

The inferior turbinoplasty technique is performed using Medtronic’s XPS3000 and Straightshot M4 Microdebrider, which feature a rotating tip enabling the surgeon to precisely remove tissue, according to the company.

Last week saw Medtronic announce the first human use of its y-shaped investigational bifurication stent.