Balloon Sinuplasty versus Traditional Sinus Surgery:Fauquier ENT

Balloon Sinuplasty versus Traditional Sinus Surgery

	Balloon Sinuplasty	Traditional Endoscopic Sinus Surgery
Instruments Used	Balloon Catheter System and Camera Endoscopes	Forceps, Curettes, Biting Type Instruments and Camera Endoscopes
Method of "Opening" Up the Sinus Cavities	Balloon Inflation	Tissue and Bone Removal
Best Patient	Sinus disease (no masses) involving the frontal and sphenoid sinus cavities. In some select patients, the maxillary sinus as well. No tissue sample is able to be obtained with this method.	Sinus disease involving any of the sinus cavities. Able to obtain tissue samples for pathologic analysis to see if any cancer or worrisome tumor characteristics are present.
Sinus Cavities that can be Addresed	Frontal sinus, sphenoid sinus, and maxillary sinus cavities. The ethmoid sinus cavities can NOT be addressed with this technique.	All sinus cavities can be addressed.
Workup for Surgical Consideration	CT Scan Allergy Evaluation Medication Failure	CT Scan Allergy Evaluation Medication Failure

Patients should be aware that a "hybrid" type of sinus surgery can be performed whereby the approach may be via balloon sinuplasty technique followed by a more traditional approach with tissue removal if biopsies required. If the ethmoid sinuses need to be addressed, a traditional approach can be used for this sinus cavity whereby the other sinus cavities (frontals, sphenoids, and maxillaries) can be addressed by balloon sinuplasty.