Discussion
The COVID-19 pandemic has presented a new challenge, with a prolonged and progressive pressure on waiting times, cancellations of elective procedures requiring restructuring of operating patterns. We showed that waiting time for coblation turbinoplasty in an outpatient setting was 2 weeks and patients for GA turbinoplasty had to wait over 4 months. Moreover, performing turbinoplasty in outpatient settings, enables theatre utilization for complex cases that cannot be done under LA.
Our study adds reliability to previous findings that coblation turbinoplasty in LA can be performed efficiently and safely(3). We did not observe a difference in impact on quality of life, pain scores or prevalence of complications. In the previous study, authors did not include GA as a control group, therefore this is the first control study to directly compare efficiency variables of turbinoplasty in LA vs GA.
Procedure in LA was as efficient in improvement of NOSE scores as GA technique. This is important finding since the turbinoplasty is mostly performed under GA in the UK and one of the reasons might be a fear that the procedure under LA may be less efficient. At the same time, pain scores did not differ between techniques. This agrees with findings of other studies (1, 7-9).