Assessing the effectiveness of surgical treatment in infants with choanal atresia

Objective: to evaluate the efficacy of the stentless endoscopic technique for congenital choanal atresia in infants. Material and methods. Subjects: 51 infants younger than 1 year of age undergoing the stentless choanoplasty procedure. Main group: 27 children who underwent surgery for the first time Comparison group: 24 children who experienced relapse after traditional stent-tube choanoplasty. To assess results, endoscopic examinations and saturation levels were used. The quality of life was evaluated using the Qualite de vie du Nourisson questionnaire for children between 3 and 12 months of age. Parents of 45 children were involved: 25 from the main group and 20 from the comparison group. Results. An endoscopic examination of the nasal cavity/nasopharynx in 50 patients showed no signs of restenosis over a 1- to 2-year follow-up period. The saturation level increased from 98.4±2.4% in the main group to 99.4±1.0% (p=0.001) in the comparison group; in the latter, it increased from 93.5±4.7 to 99.0±1.0% (p<0.001). The assessment of the quality of life after surgery using the stentless approach in the main group showed an increase from 14.4±0.4 points to 15.3±1.8 (p=0.056); points, while in the comparison group the increase was from 14.0±0.4 points to 15.6±1.0 points (p<0.001). Conclusion. Based on the results of this study, we can conclude that the endoscopic, stentless, nasal approach to surgical treatment of congenital choanal atresia in infants is more effective than traditional choanoplastic techniques with stent tubes.