Empty nose syndrome : case report

Abstract

Empty Nose Syndrome (ENS) is a term first introduced by Kern and Moore which is used to describe a rare spectrum of various symptoms suffered by patients who had had previous radical turbinate surgery with a CT scan appearance of the paranasal sinuses after gross tissue loss. The most common symptom is so- called ‘‘paradoxical’’ nasal obstruction, reported by the patient despite objectively permeable cavities on clinical examination with no obstacle found on imaging or rhinomanometry and acoustic rhinometry.1 In most cases, the inferior turbinate (IT) has been resected radically even though middle turbinate (MT) resection has also been implicated.2 Incidence is unknown, as there have been no specific studies published. The estimated rate of ENS following inferior turbinate resection is 20%, which induces simple dry nose.