I do that procedure quite a bit, both in-office and in the O.R. It is good for someone with limited sinus disease with favorable anatomy (would depend on what the CT scan looked like), no polyps, septum not severely deviated, etc. The ideal candidate is someone with recurrent acute sinusitis causing headache and pressure. The sinuses make 1/2 to 1 LITER of mucous a day, all of that stuff has to travel through narrow channels to get to the back of your nose, then down your throat, get swallowed, and then reabsorbed from the GI tract. Allergies and colds make the outflow pathways narrower than they otherwise would be, so doing a balloon dilation gives you more "margin for error" when inflammation starts. Reducing the frequency and severity of sinus pressure would be the target. It will NOT improve your nasal airflow in and of itself. It will not, in all likelihood, decrease drainage. That's more likely a consequence of your allergies. I don't know any of the guys in BCS, having been out of the state for 20 years, but would you be willing to travel outside of your area to see someone? Fighting Texas Aggie Howard Garb is in Tyler, TX and will shoot straight with you. Andrew Lehr is in Athens and is very awesome, and if you are willing to travel to Dallas, Greg Rohn and Brad Marple are as good as they get. Marple was a critic of balloon sinuplasty for a long time, so he might be the least likely of them to recommend the procedure. Of course, if you get another opinion, make sure you bring a copy of your CT with you because the report is of little help in determining the appropriateness for a particular patient. I would let any of those guys operate on me. And I'm picky
Good luck.
No material on this site is intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. See full
Medical Disclaimer.