Background: Septoplasty/inferior turbinate reduction (ITR) is commonly performed in patients with nasal obstruction hindering exercise capacity. We seek to examine its effects on exercise physiology, and whether this correlates with subjective indices of disease-specific quality of life.
Methods: In this prospective study funded by the ARS CORE Grant, adults with limited exercise tolerance who undergo septoplasty/ITR are enrolled. Pre- and post-operatively, they complete peak nasal inspiratory flow (PNIF) testing, NOSE and SNOT-22 questionnaires, and formal exercise testing. At four-minute increments, their pace increases and parameters such as heart rate (HR), oxygen consumption (VO2), and lactate are measured.
Results: We present preliminary data on 8 subjects who finished this longitudinal protocol. On average, post-operative PNIF increased 50.8 points; NOSE and SNOT-22 scores decreased 53.3 and 21.5 points, respectively. VO2 max increased 0.63ml/kg/min (0.2METS), total VO2 increased 0.06L/min, max HR decreased 1.8bpm, peak pace improved 3min/mile, peak blood lactate decreased 1.4mMole, lactate threshold (LT) HR increased 4.7bpm, percent of max HR at LT increased 2.6%, percent of peak workload at LT increased 6.8%, VO2 at LT increased 0.58ml/kg/min, and percent of max VO2 at LT increased 3.7%. NOSE scores correlated with percent of max HR at LT (r=0.9,P=0.01), and percent of peak workload at LT (r=0.9,P=0.01).
Conclusion: Our preliminary results suggest that several metrics of fitness may improve after septoplasty/ITR, and subjective NOSE score changes may correlate with certain objective parameters on exercise testing. Completion of our target subject accrual and data will help elucidate whether such findings are salient.