Back from Cleveland - Implant to Nasal Floor
I saw Dr. Houser this past Monday. I made a day trip up from Atlanta. My appointment was at 2:00 pm so I took an early flight and arrived at the Cleveland airport around 9:00 am. It was about a 9 mile taxi ride from there to Metro Health where Dr. Houser is located. If you are interested type in the address for Metro Health on google maps. They have a street level view where you can see 360 degrees what the area looks like, the entrance to the ENT Clinic located underneath the skywalk that connects the specialty centers to the main hospital. I was by myself, but could not help think about many of you, who I have not met, that have made this same trip. Traversing the same halls all with the same quest to relieve ENS symptoms. I saw Dr. Houser who along with his staff is very nice and accommodating. They even got me in a bit early so I could make it to the airport for my 5:10 flight. Dr. Houser is going to try an implant along the floor of my nose on my right side in order to deflect airflow to my middle turbinate. Hopefully it will relieve openess, coldness, dryness and nasal resonance issues as this is the side I am missing most of my IT. He cannot put alloderm in my septum nor in my lateral wall because I have a hole on both sides caused from jaw surgery I had a while back. I was just curious if anyone else has had alloderm implanted to the floor of their nose?

Hi Mark, Glad you were able to go to Dr. Houser! Did he say how much of your IT remained? How did the cotton test feel? Best of luck, and keep us updated. -Matt

Hi Matt: Yes, he said I have about 40% IT on my left, most of the front is missing. I will try to scan and post a pic here. He did do the cotton test and it immediatly felt better, fuller and less cold. He says he overcompensates the amount of the alloderm in order to factor in the initial absorbtion. So in the begining it may actually feel blocked for a while, but I would have to have some patience. I guess I am fortunate that I have most of my left IT in place or I would be in poor shape. I am dealing with a good local ENT in Atlanta who can't figure out why they got so crazy with my right IT. I wonder this all the time.

Dr. Houser also attempted to repair the hole in my max sinus back in November. He decided on this approach to alleviate some of my nasal resonance issues and also set me up for an implant to the lateral wall. He admitted that it was extremely difficult procedure because it is so far in the back and the fact he would have to turn a flap and sew it to the opposite side all in a very limited space. Dr. Houser is very skilled because he was actually able to close the hole completely. However, as the tissue healed some of it pulled away, so a hole still remains, but we knew this was a risk from the beginning. But I will say I was vey impressed with the healing and the care I received at Metro Health and feel very confident and safe regarding a second procedure. I have pics and will try to upload them here in the next day or so.

Mark, it seems like this is very often done in conjunction with an implant to the septum to either narrow the space between turbinate and the septum, or simply narrow the space in the nasal passage. Where did I find this information? Well for a start, it is described in Dr Houser's ENS tutorials. Another source is a book previewable on the internet called Functional Reconstructive Nasal Surgery written by E. de Huizing. You cannot read the whole book because it is previewable, but certain parts are available. I found the bits that I could read quite interesting