Otolaryngology: Open Access
Open Access

Abstract

In the last years, the using of a dynamic videoendoscopic analysis of the function of the Eustachian tube (ET) under conditions of changing pressure in the nasopharynx was shown that in 65% of cases of dysfunction of the Eustachian tube (ETD), the reason is in epipharyngeal tubal ostium. Th e most common factors bringing to narrowing the ostium of ET could be grouped as endonasal (infl ammation with purulent refl ux to the ostium, deformation and hypertrophy) and nasopharyngeal (hypertrophy of the tubal tonsils, of the torus tubarius and lymphoid tissue). Th e presence of this endonasal and nasopharyngeal pathology in chronic ETD reasonably raises the question of the eff ectiveness of the combination of radiofrequency (RF) tuboplastic and RF endonasal surgery, which is the objective of this work. Over a period of seven years; there have been made 210 (120: Males and 90 Females) endoscopic RF tuboplastic surgery combined with RF endoscopic, endonasal surgery to remove the anatomical and chronic infl ammatory changes in the nasal cavity. All patients make a dynamic videoendoscopy of the nasal cavity and the epipharynx and a complex of audiometry and tympanometry. Th e combination between the radiosurgical endonasal interventions and RF tuboplastc surgery gives very good results concerning the aeration of the middle ear, improvement of results audiometry and tympanometry in 85% of patients for follow-up period of 4 years. As a conclusion we can say that the treatment of chronic ETD should be aimed at restoring the structure-functional unity of the ostium of the Eustachian tube, as in our opinion the simultaneous RF endonasal operations combined with RF tuboplastic surgery appear to be a highly eff ective solution.

Biography

Yuri Tzvetanov Nikolov has graduated from Medical University of Pleven in 1982. He has specialized in Ear, Nose and Throat and has completed his PhD in 1991. He is a Member of the Bulgarian Society of Otorhinolaryngology, also the European Academy of Otology since 2001 and American Academy of Otolaryngology, Surgery of the Head and Neck since 2005.