Synthetic, Dissolving Plates Ease Repairs Of Nasal Septum Defects

EurekAlert -- Attaching cartilage to plates made of the resorbable material polydioxanone appears to facilitate corrective surgery on the nasal septum, the thin cartilage separating the two airways, according to a report in the January/February issue of Archives of Facial Plastic Surgery, one of the JAMA/Archives journals. Conventional septoplasty, or surgery to straighten a deviated septum, is not always possible because the surgical manipulations involved weaken the septal cartilage, according to background information in the article. "For decades, the inner nose remained untouched in nasal septal surgery because of these problems, and plastic surgeons attempted to correct only the nasal septum regions visible from the outside," the authors write. "Only in the past 40 years have surgical innovations allowed correction of cosmetic and functional deformities in a single session."

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