Aging as the Impact Factor on Septoplasty Success.

Objective: The aim of the study was to discuss the impact of aging on septoplasty success.

Study Design And Setting: This prospective case control study was conducted at the Umraniye Education and Research Hospital.

Methods: Our study group consists of 23 patients older than 60-year-old who have septal deviation and have previously been postponed for this surgery due to various reasons. Twenty-six patients under 40-year-old are randomly chosen as the control group who were running to septoplasty. Postoperative Glasgow Benefit Inventory Index, preoperative and postoperative NOSE score, and nasal mucociliary clearance time (MCCt) were noted for both the groups. All collected data were compared between the groups.

Results: In both the groups, postoperative NOSE scores decreased significantly compared to preoperative values (P < 0.01). This decrease was not significantly different between the groups. In both the groups, a significant decrease was noted in nasal MCCt with surgery (P = 0.004). However, this difference between two groups was not statistically significant. In addition, the Glasgow Benefit Inventory (GBI) index of control group was notably higher than the study group and this was statistically significant (P = 0.027). Also, the decrease of NOSE scores was conversely related to high GBI indexes and this is statistically significant (P = 0.005).

Conclusion: For many surgical procedures, aging is considered as one of the important prognostic factors on success. To date no study in the literature discussed this relationship between aging and the success of septoplasty. At this point, our results showed that septoplasty is a successfully performed procedure in all ages. But, satisfaction of patients is statistically decreasing with aging.