Hot Nasal Packing With Hot Saline Irrigation for Hemostasis After Adenoidectomy

A prospective controlled randomized, single-blind study was designed to investigate the effect of a hot tampon with hot saline irrigation in hemostasis of adenoidectomy. After the parents signed informed consent, the patients under the age of 16 years, who underwent adenoidectomy due to the chronic nasal obstruction, were included in this study. Patients with chronic diseases, patients with bleeding diseases, and patients who had additional procedures were excluded from the study. Among 137 patients who met the inclusion criteria, one hundred and thirty patients agreed to give an informed consent form were included in the study. Under the Declaration of Helsinki, the study protocol was approved by the Clinical Research Ethics Committee (Permit number:5/2019 ).

The patients were divided into 22 ° C and 50 ° C irrigation groups using a computerized random number chart for each working day. To provide blind-evaluation of bleeding by the surgeon, a nurse organized heating the tampon and water, placed both nostrils latex Foley catheters and performed the irrigation processes.

The temperature of the irrigation water and the tampon was adjusted through mixing hot and cold water while immersing a thermometer in the water. The temperature of the irrigation fluid was also controlled every minute to make sure it is a constant value of 50 °C (Fig. 1).

All operations will be performed under general anesthesia and a flexible fiberoptic endoscope carefully assessed adenoid size before the operation with the following grading system: grade 1 (<1/3 of posterior choanae obstructed), grade 2 (1/3-2/3 of posterior choanae obstructed) and grade 3 (>2/3 of posterior choanae obstructed) [13]. Following the patients lay down with Rose's position which their head and neck were extended by placing rolls under the shoulder, the Boyle-Davis mouth retractor was placed, and adenoidectomy was performed via curettes. Complete excision was confirmed by digital palpation and nasopharyngeal mirror. After adenoidectomy, tonsil tampon at room temperature or 50 ° C was placed in the nasopharynx. Five minutes later, the tampon was removed, and 22 ° C or 50 ° C saline irrigation was applied. The scoring system described by Boezaart et al. [14] was adapted to the nasopharynx and using this scoring system and the direct visual observation instead of scoring endoscopy, the nasopharynx was scored and recorded at four different time points: after just tamponing, at the end of one, two and three minutes. The scoring was consisted of following scores: 0=there is no bleeding, 1=accumulation in the nasopharynx is very slow and slightly leak, 2= nasopharynx filling if not aspirated intermittently, 3= blood accumulation in the nasopharynx requiring frequent aspiration, 4= nasopharynx filling if not continuously aspirated, 5= severe bleeding overflowing to the oropharynx. The scoring process was terminated when the washing liquid was clean from bleeding during the irrigation. If this washing time was less than 3 minutes, bleeding scores at remaining time points were also accepted as 0. The irrigation fluids were applied at a rate of about 150 ccs per minute and not exceeding 500 ccs in total. When the irrigation time exceeded 3 minutes, the procedure was stopped to control the bleeding through bipolar cauterization, and the irrigation was continued with saline at the same temperature. The amount of bleeding was determined by removing the volume of irrigation fluid from the volume of the material accumulated in the aspirator chamber. The bleeding site and residual adenoid were detected by the nasopharyngeal mirror.