With A Deviated Septum, Why Does Nasal Obstruction Come and Go?

A deviated septum is a well known factor causing nasal obstruction in people. However, many patients with a deviated septum will also state that there are times when they can breath just fine from their nose. As such, can a deviated septum truly be the cause of their nasal obstructive symptoms? Shouldn't the obstruction be constant?

The blunt answer is ABSOLUTELY nasal obstruction can be intermittent OR constant with a deviated septum!!! It's more a question of degree.

To begin with, a deviated septum is when the wall that separates the right and left nasal cavities is bent one way (green arrow) instead of being perfectly straight.

If there is no mucosal swelling, a person with a deviated septum is able to breath from both sides just fine. However, if there is the slightest bit of mucosal swelling from turbinate hypertrophy, allergies, upper respiratory infection, or any other environmental irritation, the side that is more narrow will obstruct much more readily with less swelling given there is just "less room" for swelling to occur before obstruction occurs.

Below is the same exact nose and septum as above, but with mucosal swelling present.

As you can see, with the same exact amount of swelling present, the deviated septum significantly influences how much space is present for air to pass through compared with a straight septum.

As such, even though a deviated septum may not technically be obstructive, given there is less room for any swelling to be accomodated, a patient will complain of nasal congestion and obstruction much more readily compared to someone with a straight septum due to the slightest changes in mucosal swelling.

How is a deviated septum fixed? Click here to read more.

Of course, one can try and control the mucosal swelling to avoid any surgical intervention, typically with steroid or anti-histamine nasal sprays. The downside is that such medications need to be used daily to prevent swelling from occurring in the first place.

Anti-Histamine Eye Drops

Allergies often cause eye symptoms of itching, swelling, redness, and tearing.

If other allergy symptoms are also present involving the nose and skin, it is best to try an oral anti-histamine as a first step.

This one oral drug may be able to resolve all these symptoms. As I am fond of telling patients, oral medications affect the whole body as the medication goes to the stomach after swallow, gets digested, and spreads to the big toe just as much as the skin, nose, and eyes.

However, if symptoms are limited to just the eye, it is best to use topical medications like eye drops rather than an oral medication which goes everywhere (where it is not needed).

There are in essence two anti-histamine eye drops available over-the-counter.

The first is the combination of naphazoline and pheniramine found in NaphCon-A and Visine-A (formerly called Ocuhist). Naphazoline is a decongestant that helps eliminate the red eyes whereas pheniramine is an anti-histamine to help eliminate itching. It can be used up to 4X per day for relief.

The other contains the active ingredient ketotifen and has 3 modes of action: anti-histamine, mast cell stabilizer, and eosinophil inhibition. All three actions in essence help resolve current as well as future allergy eye symptoms. It's also why it can be used only twice a day opposed to 4X per day required with naphazoline/pheniramine.

There are three main brands of ketotifen that basically are the same thing:

- Zaditor

- Alaway

- Zyrtec Eye Drops

- Claritin Eye Drops

The "zyrtec" and "claritin" eye drops names are quite misleading in that the eye drops do NOT contain the same ingredient as that found in the oral medication by the same name.

Personally, I prefer ketotifen over naphazoline/pheniramine due to longer-lasting relief per use, 2X per day dosing, and less risk (glaucoma and hypertension specifically). Ketotifen can be used from the age of 3 years (age 6 years for the other).

Of course, if these eye drops don't work, there are prescription antihistamine eye drops that work quite well including pataday/patanol (olopatadine), bepreve (bepotastine),  and lastacaft (alcaftadine). Of course, most insurance companies require trial of OTC eye drops first before they will authorize these prescriptions.

On a final note, there is one steroid nasal spray called Veramyst that has an FDA indication for eye allergies though I suspect all steroid nasal sprays can help similarly. As such, if a patient has only ocular and nasal allergy symptoms, it may be worth trying a steroid nasal spray, though I'm not sure how often this is practiced in reality.

Video of Endoscopic Salivary Stone Removal (Sialendoscopy)

The Doctors TV show actually produced a great (and accurate) segment on a relatively new procedure called sialendoscopy. This procedure allows a surgeon to remove a stone that may be blocking your spit gland from draining saliva into the mouth. This is analogous to a kidney stone which blocks urine from draining from the kidney into the bladder resulting in painful swelling of the kidney (causing flank pain).

How does a person know if they have a salivary gland blockage due to a stone? There is a painful swelling located right in front and/or below the ear if the parotid gland is affected, or under the jawbone if the submandibular gland is blocked.

If the blockage persists long enough, it may lead to an infection of the gland itself (sialadenitis).

Traditionally, if the stone doesn't pass on its own with conservative measures, stone removal required surgical removal of the entire gland or making an incision and removing the stone like it's a tumor mass.

Watch the video of this procedure being performed as shown on The Doctors here.

At this time, the only local surgeon I am aware of who offers this unique procedure in the mid-Atlantic region is Dr. Arjun Joshi.

Dr. Arjun Joshi (George Washington University Hospital in Washington DC)
2021 K St NW, Ste 206
Washington, DC 20006
Office Number: 202-741-3250
www.dcheadandneck.com