What is the value of a CT with nasal obstruction?

A very interesting article was published recently in Laryngoscope, which looked at whether you can determine accurately whether you have a blocked nose with a CT Scan.

What the study looked at was patients who were having a CT Scan of their nose and sinuses. The patients where then asked to fill out a questionnaire called the NOSE Questionnaire. The NOSE Questionnaire is used by Dr Dan Robinson pre and post operatively as well as many other surgeons to determine the degree to which a patient’s nose is blocked.

The CT Scans were then looked at by a radiologist as well as an ENT Surgeon and scaled according to the degree of septal deviation the patient may have. The degree of septal deviation was then correlated with the patients NOSE Score to see if there was any correlation between the CT Scan findings and the NOSE Score.

The results of the study are very interesting; there is no correlation between the degree of nasal obstruction and the findings on a CT Scan in relation to having a bent septum.

The bottom line from this study is something which ENT Surgeons have known about for years. The best determinant as to whether a patient has a blocked nose is to take a history from a patient and examine their nose. Therefore, if you feel as though you have a blocked nose, but have a normal CT Scan of your nose, there is every possibility that your symptoms are being caused by something which wasn’t found on the CT Scan and can only be found by seeing an ENT Surgeon.