Volume 8 | Issue - 8
Volume 8 | Issue - 8
Volume 8 | Issue - 7
Volume 8 | Issue - 7
Volume 8 | Issue - 6
Background: Inferior turbinate hypertrophy (ITH) is said to be the major cause of nasal airway obstruction, it is commonly accompanied with allergic and non-allergic rhinitis. The first approach towards the management is via pharmacological treatments but, surgical interventions becomes very necessary when all these methods fail. The current study systematically reviews the literature and conducts a meta-analysis of the commonly used surgical techniques Coblation, Microdebrider-Assisted Turbinoplasty (MAIT), Radiofrequency Ablation (RFA), and Diathermy to evaluate their efficiency in managing ITH. Methods: We executed a complete literature search in PubMed, Scopus, Cochrane, Web of Science, Embase, and Science Direct from 2000 to March 2024. Studies that were included consisted clinical trials, prospective studies along with cohort studies with adult patients aged 18-55 years, comparing the outcomes of MAIT, RFA, and Coblation for ITH management. Primary results were measured by changes in nasal obstruction symptoms using the Visual Analog Scale (VAS). After duplicate removal and screening, fourteen studies were included in this meta-analysis. Results: The meta-analysis shows that MAIT provides a statistically significant improvement in symptom relief over RFA (mean difference: -1.00, 95% CI: -1.12 to 0.89, P < 0.00001). However, there were no significant differences observed when comparing MAIT with Coblation (mean difference: -0.23, 95% CI: -0.73 to 0.28, P = 0.38) or MAIT with Diathermy (mean difference: 0.01, 95% CI: -0.15 to 0.17, P = 0.92). The comparison of MAIT with Diathermy also showed high heterogeneity (I² = 86%), suggesting significant variability across studies. Conclusion: While MAIT shows a clear benefit over RFA, it appears comparable in efficiency to Coblation and Diathermy. Given the unique profiles of each technique regarding postoperative recovery and thermal impact, the choice of surgical intervention should be tailored to patient-specific needs, practitioner expertise, and available resources. Additional high-quality randomized controlled trials with standardized protocols are needed to further validate these findings and optimize ITH management.