Endoscopic Sinus Surgery.

[DADDY-OH!]

Hi just wondering if anyone has had this procedure.

I've had a problem over the years with nasty ear infections & even ruptured ear drums but over the last couple of months, I'd started to get headaches towards the top of climb, for a short while in the cruise & all the way during descent.

I went to see my GP, called BUPA, saw a Consultant, had a CT Scan which showed I has a spur of bone protruding into the Nasal Passage near the neck of the Sinus & it was covered with Pollups forming an air pocket within the Sinus.

I have to undergo Endoscopic Sinus Surgery to remove the bone & pollups but dangers include a risk of blindness due to the surgery's proximity to the Optic Nerve & Meningitis as incisions have to be made near the roof of the nose risking rupturing the thin bone & CSF ( the fluid around the brain) may leak. If the muscles that move the eye are damaged, this will lead to Double Vision.

Apparently the risks are minimal. I was just wondering if anybody on here knows of anyone who has undergone this procedure.

Thanks in advance & kind regards

Daddy-oh!:ok:

[muppetbum]

yep , have has septoplasty and FESS
I know the risks sound horrendous but they are very very unlikely. I'm sooooo glad i had it done. my symptoms have gone from crippling headcahes evry day to maybe the odd ocaasion where I might need to take some ibuprofen.

I was only in overnight. I had a headache for a couple of days, I honestly found the anaesthetic worse to get over than the op

[DADDY-OH!]

Thanks Muppetbum,
Your reassurance means a lot.
:ok:

[Natsatco]

Had septoplasy and FESS (upper and lower meatal antrostomies into sinus) for same diagnosis but with cysts in sinus.

The associated risks you mention are extremely rare and the benefits enormous. I had the op @ 9am & was home by 5.30pm same day, the only after-effects being lethargic for a day and a blocked nostril for a week.

Rest assured, the benefits really are life-changing.

Best wishes :ok:

[piton]

I had this surgery 10 years ago (in Amstelveen, Holland). It really helped a lot. I didn't have polyps but just narrow passageways to forehead and cheek sinuses as well as "hypersensitive" mucous membranes that were reacting abnormally to normal stimuli according to the aeromed and ENT guys. Apart from incredible headaches I also was getting regular sinus infections so it was really affecting my work. (737 loco/charter)

In those days it was a 2 night stay in the hospital and I did have a black eye one one side from a nicked capiliary. Also had to keep antibiotic gauze "stuffing" in my forehead for a week that was removed in the polyclinic (4 meters of gauze pulled out through my nose, but that's another story :bored:) - to prevent an infection. Plus I wasn't allowed back to work for several weeks to give the mucous membranes chance to settle/calm down.

It has really been a godsend - now get a cold maybe once a year and it rarely goes through to becoming a fullblown sinus infection - plus the headaches are a thing of the past. It was only after I recovered that I realised how bad/frequent the headaches had become.

The warnings did indeed sound dire but there is such a small chance I am certainly glad I had the op and wonder if I would have kept my medical if I hadn't done it.

Good luck with yours!

[Capt Pit Bull]

I had a similar surgery about 4 years ago, I don't recall the technical term for it, but basically it was to modify the structure of my septum and mucous membranes.

Having been briefed it would be a couple of weeks or so before I could return to work and given a regime of salt water sprays etc, I did have some post operative problems with bleeding. I'd carefully resisted poking at it, and generally concentrated on keeping my face immobile, but a couple of days before I was due back at work I was sitting at my PC and yawned - a big face stretching mega yawn - and I felt a tiny stab of pain in my nose and immediately had a major nose bleed. It wasn't quite a full on spurting "ER style" gush, but it was far more than I'd ever seen coming out of somebodies nose! Soaking tissues, washing up bowl to reduces the mess in the car, and off to casualty with Mrs Pit Bull at the wheel, where the NHS' finest cauterised it. Needless to say if I'd been airborne at that moment I would have been very little use to proceedings.

I had a repeat performance a few days later, and then a number of less severe bleeds over the next month so before it was finally, unequivocally healed up and I got back to flying.

So all in all a bit of a pain, but I am very glad I did it. It was a total revelation to me to be able to take a deep breath through my nose and not sense a restricted flow. It may sound silly, but I just never realised you were supposed to be able to do that! Having a decent airway, as well as having a good chunk of mucous membrane trimmed off, also made a big difference to my hayfever (which I started getting in my late 20's) and made it much easier to control.

However, the biggest change was yet to come. Between being grounded due to continual sinus problems, seeing the compnay doctor, being referred to a specialist, having the imaging done, getting the operation, and then recovering, all told I was off the line for about 5 months. I can't fault my employers behaviour - as soon as they realised I'd developed a serious problem they were very good about it - and I did do a desk job for most of the time I was off.

But, with 5 months of regular sleep, regular meals, no sprinting around the terminal trying to change jets and make the schedule, seeing my family every day instead of fleetingly between tours, my overall quality of life had changed beyaond all comparison.

I was half a stone light, vastly more mentally alert, less irritable (these things are relative - I'm still a grumpy sod!) so much as I enjoy flying aeroplanes I only went back on line for long enough to find a reasonably paid non flying job.

pb