Abstract:

Objective   To study the procedure of correcting the nasal septum with a nasal endoscope to treat contact headaches. Methods   58 cases, 35 males and 23 females from 2006 and 2010, were reviewed. All the patients were confirmed as contact headaches. The average age was 31.5 yrs. The headache lasted from five months to seven years. Endoscopic surgery was applied to all the cases in order to modify the abnormal structure. All the patients underwent correction of the nasal septum. A powered microdebrider was applied to resect the hypertrophic mucosa or septum turbinate. For cases with middle turbinate recurvation, the turbinate was fractured and pushed inward. Partial resection of the middle turbinate was applied to the cases with concha bullosa or hypertrophic middle turbinate. Patients with hypertrophic inferior turbinate received submucous resection or out-fracture of the turbinate. Results   Each case was follow-up for 6 to 24 months. Among the 58 cases, 39 patients were cured, 16 cases got better and 3 cases were ineffective. The effective rate was 94.83%. Conclusions   Deviation of the nasal septum is a common cause of contact headaches. The effective therapy is nasal-septum-correction.

Key words:  Headache; Endoscopy; Deviation of nasal septum; Surgery