Frontal sinus CT Scan Your advice/opinion please

[dimitris33]

Hi everyone,

My main problem is that I cannot easily equalize at frontal sinus (sometimes I feel pain right up to the eyes middle area and some blood coming off, I dont remember if I was cold or not but its worth pointing out that I have allergic rhinitis). I have visited a doctor who told me that my frontal sinus passages are narrow and have to do the baloon surgery (costing 8,000-9,000 euros...).

I will take a second and third medical advice to cross check what he told me but I would like to hear also the opinion of any experienced diver in here.

Please see the CT SCANN and let me have your thoughts:

http://picasaweb.google.gr/carbonflapvgr/CTSCAN2?authkey=Gv1sRgCPqQs9nZ9PnJrwE#

http://picasaweb.google.gr/carbonflapvgr/CTSCAN?authkey=Gv1sRgCOWN3-7yqqOaXA#

I know my left paranasal sinus was full of sinusitis/mucus and I have already managed to flush this thing out with daily saline water cleaning.

Just want your advice or opinion on the frontal sinus. Do you think that my "system" is narrow and need a surgery upthere??

Note: I have already done a diaphragm surgery 10 years ago. The CT SCAN is very recent.

Much appreciate,

dimi

 

[devondave]

Hi Dimi , seeing as nobody more knowledgeable has replied . . .
Before offering an opinion I think you should know I have no medical background , and can't in all honesty call my self an experienced diver , ( my wife is a surgeon though ) .
Here goes . . . you have allergic rhinitis , possibly narrow sinus passages and are a diver . This is potentially not a good combination .
You need to know exactly how these two conditions , particularly in combination , may effect you as a diver and what treatments might be necessary .
There is only one way to find out for sure , only an ENT consultant can look at CT scans and decide whether surgery is needed .
I showed yours to my wife , she could not tell if the tubes are too narrow , she performs surgery based on scans most days but it's just not her field . You need an expert .
It would be interesting to discover if the narrow tubes are caused by the rhinitis , or if you were born with them .
Is the allergic rhinitis treatable/manageable ? That must surely be necassary for safe , pain free diving .
I am sorry if this post is a little negative , but I really hope you find a way forward and can enjoy many years of trouble free diving .

Regards ,
Dave .

 

[dimitris33]

Hi dave,

First of all i would like to thank you for your attention and response.

I'm not expecting to find a doctors' advice in here but I'm hoping find someone who did this operation, have the same problem and experience to read CT Scans so that to tell me his opinion if the frontal sinus channels are indeed narrow or not. In other word, if i can compare, for instance, pelizzari's CT with mine thus to see how are other divers sinus channels comparable with mine.

I am not a doctor but i can see that my sinus channel are not so narrow..I think that the rhinits and mucus play a major role in equilization rather than my "narrow" channels. I will manage to take another two doctors advice (one of them is family related but his is a specialist in child nose/ear but his advice will be valuable too as a head of clinic in his sector).

i have posted my CT scan for various reasons. First to receive other professional or not divers who have knowledge opinion and advices, and second for the unexperienced divers to learn and see a real full CT Scan of sinuses.

My dream since i was a boy was to dive deep..

I'm know 34 and still cant dive more than 10 meters...I have put aside my dream 10 years ago when i first took a frontal sinus barotrauma after my diaphragm surgery (dived one month after the surgery as per stupid doctor's advice..).

Now 10 years later and after doing various sports in the meantime to "forget" or "exchange" my dream, I've come to the conclusion that the dreams cannot be exchanged with anything..

10 years ago and back, the knowledge and informations was hard to find. Nowdays with the internet you have a terrawindow to the world of knowledge. Deeperblue is a great root of knowledge among other forums, so after reading day and night i've started dong all the tips written, flushing my sinuses with saline water, doing pranayama, eat low fat food before dives, etc..

Unfo i'm still havent tried all these in water so that to conclude if the problem is not the narrow channel but other factors cause i'm currently doing all dry training/tips.

I will fulfill my dream. I will visit every doctor can help. I will do anything to go down....

Thats a short story. Anyone could give an advice/opinion i would MUCH APPRECIATE.

Thanks again dave for your time.

dive safe,

dimi

 

[haughki]

Hi Again Dimi,

What a moving post. Above all, I wish you good luck and success with your dreams!

It's cool to look at your scans, but I don't have any insight with them. I've seen my own, but only briefly.

Rhinitis is a tricky thing. Allergic rhinitis is more well understood. I've got vaso-motor rhinitis, which, as far as I can tell, is something we just haven't figured out very clearly yet.

More and more, I have the sense that my best approach will has less to do with a crystal clear, logical understanding of the underlying physical causes of the rhinitis, and more to do with trying to better understand the psychology (or my "psychological relationship" with) the rhinitis.

There's lots and lots of data which talks about this kind of medical issue. One book I can recommend is "The Mind Body Prescription" by John Sarno.

Anyhow, like I said, I wish you the very best of luck.

Hawkeye Parker

 

[sunfish]

Dimitris, have you tried "Flixonase"? It's a nasal spray suspension and it controls airborn allergy symptoms. If you don't have nasal polyps then it may be enough to get you diving deeper.
The active ingredient is fluticasone propionate.
Best of luck to you.

 

[MP4/4]

Hi, Dimi!

I had narrow channels and had a lot of problems with equalization of sinuses' cavities(i coudn't dive below 5m). My doctor recommended me a FESS procedure(surgery)on frontal and maxillary sinuses and now the problem is fixed! I can dive deep without any of old issues.

 

[cdavis]

Hi Dimitri,

There are several steroid nasal inhalers drugs, Flonase and similar, that are very effective for allergic type reactions. Have you tried any of those? Another treatment, that is magic if the original source of irritation has been removed, is a short course of cortizone tablets. All of these require a docs perscription.

Have you tried to find what you are allergic to? Might be something as simple as milk.

Connor

 

[Anders]

I've had sinus problems (chronic rhinitis) for years, and recently started using a nasal pray with cortisone (perscription only, at least in Norway) to relieve my sinus problems. My sinuses are normal in structure (not particularily narrow) but get clogged up by mucus easily and pretty much always when I get a cold. The cortisone spray is used once daily and is supposed to be relatively side-effect free as long as your mucus membranes are not irritated by the spray itself.
I have not had any signs of blocked sinuses nor equalization problems/pain when diving since I started using it so I'm really happy. If your sinuses are only somewhat narrow and get clogged up by mucus this may be a good treatment as it will dry them up and clear the way for equalization.

 

[Salehthefish]

Hi Dimi First of all i wish that your problem will be solved as soon as possible and to be able to go deep safely. I have some sinus problems but seems not as serious as yours but when i have infection it is so painful if i go more than 5 meters. For me i has septoplasty surgery before and it has no relation with your case, but after that i used to have many infections and allergy till my doctor gave me one spray and tablets which i use on daily bases, but i do not advice to try anything by urself till the doctor tell you if it has any affect on you. First thing to do is to aks your doctor if there is any spray that will help you without going for surgery otherwise make the operation and it will be solved. Note: consult most expert Doctor in the same field. Again all best in your case and hope to be able to achieve your dream soon