East Ventura News

A minimally invasive surgical procedure has replaced a bloody, painful and expensive procedure, and is relieving the pain and pressure associated with chronic sinusitis.

Healthline reported that balloon sinuplasty, also known as “smart sinus” procedure, clears blocked sinuses and was approved by the Food and Drug Administration in 2005.

Dr. Glenn E. Waldman with Bella Vista ENT said that balloon sinuplasty has been a game changer.

“Prior to that, we didn't have most of the instrumentation and it was much more invasive. It involved removing bone and moving soft tissue with longer healing times, procedures that require general anesthesia, that kind of thing,” Waldman told East Ventura News. “As the balloon device has been perfected, it's created a pathway to a whole new treatment paradigm that didn't even exist before. When I first heard about it, I wasn't sure if that was going to be the thing. But when I started thinking about it I said, ‘Wait a minute, this is something that we can do in the office under local anesthesia and fix the sinus problems without taking the patient to the operating room, without doing major surgery with minimal downtime.’"

Waldman added that the procedure opened the door and there was this huge shift in the field.  

“The most recent development is something called Clarifix, which is a small device that delivers liquid nitrogen into a small tiny balloon that you can use to freeze a specific spot in the nose where the nerves in that area control the secretions for patients with chronic runny nose and chronic post nasal drip,” he said. “Again, (it’s a) simple office procedure under local anesthesia. So all of these things have become this armamentarium that we have at our disposal to address a lot of the common sinus nasal issues in an extremely minimally invasive way.”

All of the new medical methods help address various issues that people have with their nose and their sinuses in a much less invasive manner, Waldman added.

The procedure is usually advised for individuals with chronic sinusitis, when other treatments have been found to be ineffective and balloon sinuplasty involves no cutting and no removal of bones or tissue, according to Healthline.

“Patients always ask, is that a permanent dilation? And the answer we explain to them is 'yes,'” Waldman said. “The way the device works is you are compressing the soft tissue and compressing the bone as well. The bone is very, very, very thin and it actually grows fractures and moves.”

The procedure works really well and is a very minimally invasive procedure, he said.

Healthline reports that balloon sinuplasty can be performed under local or general anesthesia that involves the insertion of a very slim and flexible balloon catheter into your sinus passage.

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