A study of nasal airway function in the postoperative period of nasal surgery.

One hundred fifty-seven consecutive nasal surgery cases were followed for a minimum of one year or more. Ten cases were considered to have unsatisfactory mechanical airways, caused either by return of the original pathology (alar collapse or atrophic rhinitis) or by inadequate mechanical results. Nineteen cases in which the mechanical airways were satisfactory had soft tissue obstruction secondary to chronic inferior turbinate congestion. The effects of nasal allergy and the trauma of postnasal packing on chronic congestion of the turbinates are tabulated according to the type of surgery performed and results discussed.