Comparison of efficacy of nasal packing vs no packing in patients undergoing functional endoscopic sinus surgery (FESS)

Aim: to compare the efficacy of nasal packing versus no nasal packing in patients undergoing fess. methods: this comparative study was carried out at department of head and neck surgery,civil hospital quetta and chaudhary rehmat ali memorial trust hospital,lahore from 1st october 2014 to 30th august 2015. a total of 100 cases (50 in each group) were enrolled in the study with 18-50 years of either gender having chronic sinus diseases while we excluded cases with indication for septoplasty,turbinate surgery,or use of other nasal packing,which would have hampered a valid comparison of the packing and no packing and presence of a severe medical or neuropsychiatric disorder. group-a was allotted to nasal packing (applied according to departmental protocols),and group-b to the patients with no nasal packing. all patients after fess were followed till 48 hours for post-operative bleeding. the patients with post-operative bleeding in both groups were recorded. results: mean age of the patients was calculated as 43.19±4.28 years of age,majority of the patients in both groups were between 31-50 years. male were recorded in 27(54%) in group-a and 26(52%) in group-b while remaining cases were females i.e.,23(46%) in group-a and 24(48%) in group-b,comparison of efficacy (no post-operative bleeding) was recorded in 47(94%) in group-a and 41(82%) in group-b,p value was calculated as 0.06,which is no in-significant. conclusion: we concluded that post operative bleeding was higher in packing group while this difference was not significant.