Pediatric nasal surgery: timing and technique

Timing of pediatric nasal surgery has always been a controversial topic. Concern over disrupting growing parts of the face and causing permanent facial deformity has led to a primarily conservative approach. Many surgeons feel that it is prudent to wait until the patient has completed nasal growth after puberty to pursue nasal surgery. Recently, this attitude has been challenged with evidence that not only is nasal surgery in the pediatric age group not a detriment to facial growth, but failure to correct significant nasal deformity may actually cause dysmorphic facial growth secondary to obligate mouth breathing. Because of this, recent studies have focused on determining safe surgical techniques for pediatric nasal surgery, including inferior turbinate reduction, septoplasty and rhinoplasty. Research focus on this topic has also been expanded to include quality-of-life measures after nasal surgery. Pediatric nasal surgery prior to puberty is not only safe, but may prevent facial deformity in certain patients.