UK Septoplasty, polyp removal & sinus opening widening. Concerns over risks.
Hi everyone,
I am due to undergo a septoplasty to rectify a pretty severe deviation, my entire septum is past the midline and currently inside my left nostril.
At the same time ENT want to remove polyps (mostly from my right nostril which I thought was my good nostril but apparently not) and widen the connections between my sinuses.
I wasn’t really briefed in depth on the risks of the surgery. They were stated as bleeding,infection, septal perforation, CSF leak and if I wanted to know more to look at the NHS website.
After doing that and some research online I found the most concerning of the risks to be empty nose syndrome ENS, but was surprised I hadn’t been told about it.
From reading up I’ve come to the assumption it can happen to anybody with any kind of septum surgery, doesn’t matter if the turbinates are touched or not, but when calling my ENT to discuss it he simply said it’s impossible, we aren’t touching your turbinates so there is no risk.
Am I over thinking the risk or misunderstanding it? I feel like the improvement to my breathing would be substantial as I have 100% mouth breathed for the last 14 years since I had my nose broken however I don’t really feel like a potential life changing and irreparable condition is worth the risk as I don’t think I could take my breathing getting any worse than it already is.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated and anyone from the UK who has undergone or knows about how the surgery goes and risks with how we do it over here would be really helpful also.
Thanks in advance!