The aim of this study is to compare the effectiveness of coblation and microdebrider-assisted turbinoplasty in reducing nasal obstruction due to inferior turbinate hypertrophy (ITH).

A comprehensive search of articles in English language was performed in PubMed using the keywords coblation turbinoplasty, coblation inferior turbinate reduction, microdebrider turbinoplasty, microdebrider assisted inferior turbinate reduction.

Primary search yielded 41 results with only two fulfilling the inclusion and exclusion criteria. In both studies, patients were assessed objectively as well as subjectively. Improvement in nasal obstruction was similar in both coblation and microdebrider groups up to 6 months of follow-up in both studies. However, in the study by Lee and Lee (2006) at 12 months postoperative follow-up, microdebrider-assisted turbinoplasty patients showed a better improvement in nasal obstruction both objectively on acoustic rhinometry and subjectively as compared with the coblation group (p < 0.05).

Despite getting better results with microdebriderassisted turbinoplasty in one of the study, it can be safely concluded that longer postsurgical follow-up period with bigger sample size is required to adequately comment on the extra benefit offered by either coblation or microdebrider.

As and when further research is planned on comparing benefits of different powered instruments for turbinate reduction, it will be wise to prolong the follow-up period with increased sample size.

Kumar A, Goyal A, Singh RK. Coblation vs Microdebrider-assisted Inferior Turbinoplasty. Int J Otorhinolaryngol Clin 2016;8(2):51-52.