Ear, Nose and Throat Center

Park Ridge
Buffalo Grove

(847) 685-1000

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PATIENT EDUCATION

  • Ears
    • Child's Hearing Loss
    • Cholesteatoma
    • Cochlear Implants
    • Ear Plastic Surgery
    • Ear Tubes
    • Earaches
    • Ears and Altitude
    • Earwax
    • Quick Glossary for Good Ear Health
    • Autoimmune Inner Ear Disease
    • Better Ear Health
    • Buying a Hearing Aid
    • Child Screening
    • Chronic Otitis Media
    • Cochlear-Meningitis Vaccination
    • Day Care and Ear, Nose, and Throat Problems
    • Ear Infection and Vaccines
    • Your Genes and Hearing Loss
    • How the Ear Works
    • Hyperacusis
    • Know the Power of Sound
    • Noise-Induced Hearing Loss In Children
    • Pediatric Obesity
    • What You Should Know About Otosclerosis
    • When Your Child Has Tinnitus
    • Why Do Children Have Earaches?
    • Infant Hearing Loss
    • Noise and Hearing Protection
    • Perforated Eardrum
    • Swimmer's Ear
    • Tinnitus
    • Travel Tips for the Hearing Impaired
  • Throat
    • About Your Voice
    • Common Problems That Can Affect Your Voice
    • Day Care and Ear, Nose, and Throat
    • Can the Medications I Take Harm My Voice
    • Gastroesphageal Reflux (GERD)
    • How Allergies Affect your Child's Ears, Nose, and Throat
    • Keeping Your Voice Healthy
    • Laryngeal (Voice Box) Cancer
    • Laryngopharyngeal Reflux and Children
    • Nodules, Polyps, and Cysts
    • Pediatric GERD
    • Pediatric Obesity and Ear, Nose, and Throat Disorders
    • Special Care for Occupational and Professional Voice Users
    • Tips for Healthy Voices
    • Tonsillectomy Procedures
    • Tonsillitis
    • Tonsils and Adenoids PostOp
    • Vocal Cord Paralysis
    • GERD and LPR
    • Hoarseness
    • How the Voice Works
    • Secondhand Smoke
    • Sore Throats
    • Swallowing Disorders
    • Tonsils and Adenoids
    • Diet and Exercise Tips
  • Nose and Mouth
    • Allergies and Hay Fever
    • Antihistamines, Decongestants, and "Cold" Remedies
    • Continuous Positive Airway Pressure (CPAP)
    • Facial Sports Injuries
    • 20 Questions about Your Sinuses
    • Allergic Rhinitis (Hay Fever)
    • Allergic Rhinitis, Sinusitis, and Rhinosinusitis
    • Antibiotics and Sinusitis
    • Are We Through With Chew Yet?
    • Cleft Lip and Cleft Palate
    • Could My Child Have Sleep Apnea?
    • Day Care and Ear, Nose, and Throat Problems
    • Deviated Septum
    • Do I Have Sinusitis?
    • How Allergies Affect your Child's Ears, Nose, and Throat
    • Injection Snoreplasty
    • Pediatric Obesity
    • Sinus Headaches
    • Sinus Pain
    • Sinus Surgery
    • Sinusitis: Special Considerations for Aging Patients
    • Tips for Sinus Sufferers
    • Tongue-tie (Ankyloglossia)
    • Your Nose: The Guardian Of Your Lungs
    • Fungal Sinusitis
    • Laser Assisted Uvula Palatoplasty (LAUP)
    • Mouth Sores
    • Nasal Fractures
    • Nose Surgery
    • Nosebleeds
    • Post-Nasal Drip
    • Salivary Glands
    • Secondhand Smoke
    • Sinusitis
    • Smell and Taste
    • Smokeless Tobacco
    • Snoring
    • Stuffy Noses
    • TMJ Pain
    • Tonsils and Adenoids
  • Head and Neck
    • Bell's Palsy
    • Children and Facial Paralysis
    • Dizziness and Motion Sickness
    • Facial Plastic Surgery
    • Facial Sports Injuries
    • Children and Facial Trauma
    • Cleft Lip and Cleft Palate
    • Pediatric Head and Neck Tumors
    • Sinus Pain
    • Sinusitis
    • Fall Prevention
    • Head and Neck Cancer
    • Sinus Headaches
    • Thyroid Disorders and Surgery
    • TMJ
  • Cancer
    • Are We Through With Chew Yet?
    • Common Problems That Can Affect Your Voice
    • Laryngeal (Voice Box) Cancer
    • Pediatric Head and Neck Tumors
    • Pediatric Thyroid Cancer
    • Rhabdomyosarcoma
    • Head and Neck Cancer
    • Quiting Smokeless Tobacco
    • Secondhand Smoke
    • Skin Cancer
    • Smokeless Tobacco
  • Pediatric
    • Child's Hearing Loss
    • Children and Facial Paralysis
    • Facial Sports Injuries
    • Allergic Rhinitis (Hay Fever)
    • Child Screening
    • Children and Facial Trauma
    • Cochlear-Meningitis Vaccination
    • Could My Child Have Sleep Apnea?
    • Day Care and Ear, Nose, and Throat
    • How Allergies Affect your Child's Ears, Nose, and Throat
    • Laryngopharyngeal Reflux and Children
    • Noise-Induced Hearing Loss In Children
    • Pediatric Food Allergies
    • Pediatric GERD
    • Pediatric Head and Neck Tumors
    • Pediatric Obesity and Ear, Nose, and Throat Disorders
    • Pediatric Thyroid Cancer
    • When Your Child Has Tinnitus
    • Why Do Children Have Earaches?
    • Pediatric Sinusitis
    • Secondhand Smoke and Children
  • Información de Salud en Español
    • Colesteatoma
    • Diábolos Estudio acerca de causas y opciones terapéuticas
    • Doctor? ¿Por Qué a Mi Hijo Le Duele El Oído?
    • Doctor? ¿Qué Causa El Ruido En El Oído?
    • El Humo del Tabaco Ambiental y los Niños
    • La pérdida de la audición
    • Otitis Media Crónica (Infección del Oído Medio) e Hipocusia
    • Perfóracion Timpánica
    • Qué Debe Saber Acerca de la Otoesclerosis
    • Screening de Audición en Niños
    • Sirvan Las Amigdalas Y Los Adenoides?
    • Amigdalitis
    • Rinitis alérgica, sinusitis y rinosinusitis
    • Implantes cocleares
    • Problemas comunes que pueden afectar a su voz
    • ¿Tengo sinusitis?
    • Cera en los oídos
    • Reflujo Gastroesofágico (ERGE)
    • Las fracturas nasales
    • Nódulos, pólipos y quistes
    • Hemorragias nasales
    • Glosario para una buena salud del oído

SINUS SURGERY

Our team of specialists and staff believe that informed patients are better equipped to make decisions regarding their health and well being. For your personal use, we have created an extensive patient library covering an array of educational topics. Browse through these diagnoses and treatments to learn more about topics of interest to you. Or, for a more comprehensive search of our entire Web site, enter your term(s) in the search bar provided.

As always, you can contact our office to answer any questions or concerns.

The ear, nose, and throat specialist will prescribe many medications (antibiotics, decongestants, nasal steroid sprays, antihistamines) and procedures (flushing) for treating acute sinusitis. There are occasions when physician and patient find that the infections are recurrent and/or non-responsive to the medication. When this occurs, surgery to enlarge the openings that drain the sinuses is an option.

A recommendation for sinus surgery in the early 20th century would easily alarm the patient. In that era, the surgeon would have to perform an invasive procedure, reaching the sinuses by entering through the cheek area, often resulting in scarring and possible disfigurement. Today, these concerns have been eradicated with the latest advances in medicine. A trained surgeon can now treat sinusitis with minimal discomfort, a brief convalescence, and few complications.

A clinical history of the patient will be created before any surgery is performed. A careful diagnostic workup is necessary to identify the underlying cause of acute or chronic sinusitis, which is often found in the anterior ethmoid area, where the maxillary and frontal sinuses connect with the nose. This may necessitate a sinus computed tomography (CT) scan (without contrast), nasal physiology (rhinomanometry and nasal cytology), smell testing, and selected blood tests to determine an operative strategy. Note: Sinus X–rays have limited utility in the diagnosis of acute sinusitis and are of no value in the evaluation of chronic sinusitis.

Sinus Surgical Options Include:

Functional endoscopic sinus surgery (FESS): Developed in the 1950s, the nasal endoscope has revolutionized sinusitis surgery. In the past, the surgical strategy was to remove all sinus mucosa from the major sinuses. The use of an endoscope is linked to the theory that the best way to obtain normal healthy sinuses is to open the natural pathways to the sinuses. Once an improved drainage system is achieved, the diseased sinus mucosa has an opportunity to return to normal.

FESS involves the insertion of the endoscope, a very thin fiber-optic tube, into the nose for a direct visual examination of the openings into the sinuses. With state of the art micro-telescopes and instruments, abnormal and obstructive tissues are then removed. In the majority of cases, the surgical procedure is performed entirely through the nostrils, leaving no external scars. There is little swelling and only mild discomfort.

The advantage of the procedure is that the surgery is less extensive, there is often less removal of normal tissues, and can frequently be performed on an outpatient basis. After the operation, the patient will sometimes have nasal packing. Ten days after the procedure, nasal irrigation may be recommended to prevent crusting.

Image guided surgery: The sinuses are physically close to the brain, the eye, and major arteries, always areas of concern when a fiber optic tube is inserted into the sinus region. The growing use of a new technology, image guided endoscopic surgery, is alleviating that concern. This type of surgery may be recommended for severe forms of chronic sinusitis, in cases when previous sinus surgery has altered anatomical landmarks, or where a patient’s sinus anatomy is very unusual, making typical surgery difficult.

Image guidance is a near-three-dimensional mapping system that combines computed tomography (CT) scans and real-time information about the exact position of surgical instruments using infrared signals. In this way, surgeons can navigate their surgical instruments through complex sinus passages and provide surgical relief more precisely. Image guidance uses some of the same stealth principles used by the United States armed forces to guide bombs to their target.

Caldwell Luc operation: Another option is the Caldwell-Luc operation, which relieves chronic sinusitis by improving the drainage of the maxillary sinus, one of the cavities beneath the eye. The maxillary sinus is entered through the upper jaw above one of the second molar teeth. A “window” is created to connect the maxillary sinus with the nose, thus improving drainage. The operation is named after American physician George Caldwell and French laryngologist Henry Luc and is most often performed when a malignancy is present in the sinus cavity.


Phone: (847) 685-1000                                                Fax: (847) 685-6685

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