Hi

Thanks for the query

Septoplasty is a corrective surgery performed to straighten the deviated nasal septum.

Following the surgery, the nose of the patient is packed with a traditional medicated ribbon gauze or a prefabricated nasal tampons like Rapid Rhino or Merocel.

When the nose is packed the patient will be breathing through the mouth. Initially few of them do experience breathing difficulty post surgery but they soon get used to it. This is because, most of the patients would have already got accustomed to the mouth breathing due to long standing deviated nasal septum and blockage of the nose, prior to the surgery and hence nasal packing in these individuals will make only minimal difference.

Again, once the pack is removed 24 hours after the surgery, the nose gets blocked because of the swelling of the traumatized tissues in the nose, clots and discharge. This will slowly improve after a week once the clots are cleared off and the swelling subsides.

All these above mentioned things would have been explained to the patients before the surgery and mentally prepared to face the situation.

Hope I have answered your query; I will be available for the follow-up queries.

Regards
Dr. Naveen Kumar N.
ENT and Head & Neck Surgery

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