Pain-Free Sinus Surgery

Reported February 2006

CHICAGO (Ivanhoe Broadcast News) -- Sinus surgery may have you breathing easier after it's over, but recovery can be a painful process and scares many people away. Now, a new technique cuts down on the pain and has people breathing better!

Marty Dwan is busy -- he is a husband, father and runs his own company and somehow manages to do it all while suffering from sinus problems. He dreaded the surgery and even worse the recovery because after sinus surgery, patients have to deal with uncomfortable nose packing. "You have to go in a day or two later, have the packing removed, and that is the absolute worst pain in the world," he says.

Now, Dwan doesn't have to deal with the painful packing -- commonly used for plastic surgery. Ear, nose and throat doctor, Jay Dutton, M.D., an otolaryngologist at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago, uses a revolutionary gel to stop bleeding after sinus surgeries. "It forms sort of a super-clot in the sinuses, for lack of better words," Dr. Dutton tells Ivanhoe.

The gel is made from the patient's own blood. Plasma, or red and white blood cells and platelets, is combined with thrombin, a cow hormone that helps blood clot fast. This mixture is sprayed into the sinus cavities. Dr. Dutton says, "As soon as it hits the sinuses, within 30 seconds it forms a gel the consistency of Jell-O."

"It was nice that I didn't even have a bandage or anything on the nose," Dwan says.

After surgery, the gel is eventually absorbed into the sinus cavity so it never needs to be removed.

Click here to Go Inside This Science or contact:

Rush University Medical Center
653 W. Congress Parkway
Chicago, IL 60612
(888) 352-RUSH
(312) 942-5000

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