Background: Nasal obstruction due to hypertrophied inferior turbinates (HIT) is one of the common reasons of patients' attending Otolaryngology clinics. Endoscopic partial inferior turbinectomy associated with intra-operative nasal bleeding which can obscure the visibility of the field and prolong time of surgery. Tranexamic acid (TXA) acts as a competitive antagonist at the lysine site on plasminogen. So, it acts as an anti-fibrinolytic agent by inhibiting the tissue plasminogen activator, and with this mechanism in the coagulation cascade, it can be applied topically to decrease intra-operative bleeding.
Objective: To evaluate hemostatic effect of topical application of TXA on the surgical field after endoscopic partial inferior turbinectomy.
Patients and Methods: A prospective randomized clinical study included 50 patients with chronic nasal obstruction due to bilateral HIT, attending the ENT outpatient clinics of Al-Azhar University Hospitals between Jan 2015 and May 2016. They were randomly allocated into two equal groups: Study group underwent endoscopic partial turbinectomy with TXA, and control group underwent endoscopic partial turbinectomy with normal saline alone. Patients were seen 1, 3, 4 weeks post-operatively.
Results: In the study group, 60% were males and 40% were females and in control group 68% were males and 32% were female, with an average age of 32.1 ± 5 years in the study group and 31.9 ± 7.3 years in the control group. The average bleeding score was 2.2 ± 0.6 in the study group, while it was 2.6 ± 0.7 in the control group. The mean bleeding time was 7 ± 2.5 min. in study group, while the control group was 12 ± 4.8 min. The mean blood volume lost in the study group was 51 ± 14.1 ml, while 75 ± 14.2 ml in the control group.
Conclusion: Using of tranexamic acid during endoscopic partial turbinectomy minimized intraoperative bleeding and improved surgical field and less time consuming.