NEW ORLEANS - Thirty-seven million Americans suffer with sinus problems and infections each year, costing billions of dollars when you include the money spent on medicine, doctor visits, x-rays, CT scans, and surgery.
But now there is a new, simpler way to stop chronic sinus problems for people who need surgery, but don't want to go under the knife.
Three-year-old Ethan Capdeboscq always seemed to be sick.
"His nose would run. He would have a bad cough, fever, I mean, just anything," said his mother, Angelia Capdeboscq.
With his asthma, he constantly had sinus infections and seemed to live on medications.
"In the last 16 months, he's been on about 13 antibiotics and about four different steroids," she added.
But since those didn't work, his Ear, Nose and Throat doctor decided to fix the problem in the O.R.
"Fortunately most sinus infections go away without any treatment, thankfully, and the ones that don't, usually we can make the sinus infections go away with medicine. It's uncommon that anybody ever needs to have surgery. But if a sinus infection persists and doesn't respond to medical therapy, then at some point it may be reasonable to consider doing surgery," said Otolaryngologist Dr. Kevin McLaughlin.
On December 9, Ethan went into surgery at St. Tammany Parish Hospital. Under a general anesthesia, LSU Health Sciences Center's Dr. McLaughlin took less than 30 minutes to perform this new technology. It's based on balloon angioplasty for blocked arteries, where a balloon inflates, pushing the plaque open, so blood can flow better.
Balloon sinuplasty is similar. A tiny wire is threaded into the nose and up into the sinus. Then a balloon is inflated at the opening of the sinus, making a small opening bigger. Sinus infections are caused when the nose swells from a cold or allergies, blocking the sinus from draining into the nose. When blocked for a long time, mucus builds up and can become infected with bacteria. But with a permanent, bigger opening, after balloon sinuplasty, the sinus is less likely to become blocked.
"The way I'll explain to patients, it's kind of like converting a one inch bathtub drain to a 10 inch bathtub drain. It's a lot more difficult for a big drain to get blocked up compared to a little drain," explained Dr. McLaughlin.
Dr. McLaughlin says this surgery is so much easier on the patient than the old method. There's no scarring, no packing in the nose and no going back to the O.R. to clean out the surgical site.
The thing that's very wonderful or exciting about this technique is that because I'm not making a cut, because I'm not removing tissue, I'm not making a wound. Because I'm not creating a wound, I'm not getting the bleeding. I don't have to worry about scaring because there is no wound that has to heal," he added.
Dr. McLaughlin was among the first in the U.S. to use this surgery on children and adults. Only a few other doctors have begun using it locally as well.
"I think it's less invasive and I think it speeds the recovery for patients. I think the recovery and their down time is not quite as bad. I think their pain is less and we've seen good results," said Dr. Patrick Cecola, an LSUHSC Otolaryngologist practicing at Ochsner and Children's Hospital.
Ethan went home after the surgery and now doesn't cough as much. He says he had an operation but it didn't hurt.
"Soon as we got home, he was playing with his toys, went outside played. He's had normal activity since it was over. No complaints at all," said his mother.
Insurance does cover this new type of sinus surgery.
