A recent report published in the Archives of Facial Plastic Surgery shows that people who suffer from severe nasal obstruction can resort to functional rhinoplasty to improve their nasal airway function. Rhinoplasty is the modification of someone's nose through plastic surgery for cosmetic purposes. On the other hand, functional rhinoplasty also refers to the surgical modification of the nose, but for medical purposes.

Severe nasal obstruction refers to a serious obstruction occurring at the level of the nasal airways and it has various causes, from valve insufficiency and turbinate hypertrophy to septal deviation. The study conducted by researchers at the University of Washington School of Medicine, Cosmetic Surgery Center, Seattle, involved 41 subjects with an average age of 41. All the participants in the study suffered from severe obstruction of the nasal passages for more than 12 months.

The 27 men and 14 women who participated in the study underwent nasal plastic surgery, and post-operative statistics effectuated by scientists showed a great improvement in the number of those who could breathe normally again after the surgical intervention.

Evaluations and questionnaires which reflected the severity of patients' nasal obstructions were filled in by the team for each participant. The evaluations were done for each patient before and after the operation, on a scale from 0 to 100. At the end of the study - after 227 days from the surgical intervention - the average score in the questionnaires decreased from 58.4 before the operation to 15.7 postoperatively.

The leader of the study, Sam P. Most, M.D., concluded: "Functional rhinoplasty techniques are effective in improving nasal airway function as measured by a patient-based, disease-specific, quality-of-life instrument. The specific techniques considered to treat nasal obstruction can be tailored to address the areas of concern, including septal deviation, internal or external valve collapse and turbinate hypertrophy."