As yet, there is no totally satisfactory means of treating allergic rhinitis and proper management remains in question.
Since Wang's first introduction of carbon dioxide laser surgery to inferior turbinate, it has been much developed for proper clinical uses.
Widely used CO2 laser has advantages such as good absorption, low reflection rate and no color selection, so it seems to be efficacious for vaporization of superficial layer of inferior turbinate which throught to be main place of allergic
reaction.
From October 1992 to September 1994, the inferior turbinates of 263 patients with perenninal allergic rhinitis were vaporized by a defocussed CO2 laser beam, using specially designed handpieces. Among these patients, many patients showed
improvement in
subjective symptoms, provocation test results and histopathologic findings showed low number of EG1, EG2 positive cells after CO2 laser surgery. This surgery can be done under surface anesthesia as an outpatient procedure, and it is painless,
with
no
bleeding. (Korean J Otolaryngol 38:12, 1995)
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