Yes. There’s a new procedure called sinuplasty in which a balloon is threaded into the sinuses and inflated to push apart the thin bones that form the sinus cavity, making the opening bigger so mucus can drain better.
In traditional endoscopic surgery, doctors thread metal instruments into the sinuses to cut away some sinus bone. So far, data on the new technique are awaiting publication, so it’s impossible to gauge how safe and effective the procedure is.
Dr. Peter J. Catalano, chairman of otolaryngology at the Lahey Clinic in Burlington, has done sinuplasty in about 60 patients.
Doctors had worried, he said, that when the balloon was inflated, it would fracture the thin sinus bones in such a way that they would migrate to the eye or the brain. So far, in studies of both cadavers and 125 patients who have had the procedure, there appear to have been no complications. The sinuses appear to stay open in 95 percent of patients for at least six months, he said.
Dr. Andrew Lane, director of the division of rhinology at Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions, said sinuplasty is “a good idea for selected patients.”
“The trick will be figuring out who needs sinuplasty and who needs traditional endoscopic surgery,” he said.
Dr. Ralph Metson, a sinus surgeon at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary, said he thinks sinuplasty “is a very intriguing idea.”
But, he said, it only helps people whose problems are limited to the frontal or maxillary sinuses a small percentage of those with sinus trouble.