Empty Nose Syndrome

Empty nose syndrome (also known as "the wide nasal cavity syndrome") is a condition affecting the nasal passages. It gets its name from the nose's appearance in an x-ray, where it looks completely empty.

Causes

• Empty nose syndrome is an iatrogenic condition, meaning it stems from medical treatment and not some known pathogen or outside condition. It occurs when the nasal turbinates are excessively removed via surgery.

Symptoms

• The most common symptoms for empty nose syndrome include chronic dryness of the nasal cavity, crusting, burning, pain, recurring secondary infections, as well as the feeling that you cannot breathe in enough air through the nose.

Diagnosis

• Empty nose syndrome is easily diagnosed by an x-ray image of the nose. With the turbinates gone, the whole nose looks empty in an x-ray, leading to a diagnosis of empty nose syndrome.

Treatment

• Non-surgical treatment for empty nose syndrome symptoms includes daily saline irrigation with a saline or lactate nasal spray, sesame oil, or using a CPAP machine with a built-in humidifier. Surgical treatments include implants to replace the excised turbinates.

Prognosis

• Empty nose syndrome is a chronic condition, and conservative treatment will not cure it. Surgical intervention by installing turbinate implants may greatly reduce the symptoms of the condition, but the symptoms will never be reduced 100 percent.