I am 33 year old woman who has a large hole in her nasal septum.

Your questions answered by our surgeon, Lucian Ion, FRCS(Plast)

Asked on 02 November 2010

Question

I am 33 year old woman who has a large hole in her nasal septum. This is as a result of obsessively picking at any scaring in the nose for about 5 years. I can assure you this hole has not been caused by any drugs as embarrassing as it is it really is from a picking habbit.

I saw my GP eventually and I have also seen an ENT consultant about a year and a half ago who advised me to rinse nasal area to keep clean and avoid crusting stop picking which I have. I am so conscience of this hole and am also convinced it is growing in size and am worried.

I have researched the internet but there doesn't seem to really be any surgery available to close the hole but I did see in the Daily mail a lady recently has surgery to correct a hole caused by her hairdressing career.

Any advice would be great?

Answer

As the ENT consultant advised you, one of the options is to leave it well alone it, as it is not likely to progress in size.

There are surgical techniques described for closure of septal perforations, with variable success rates. Some of them involve using tissue from inside the mouth to be transferred with its blood supply for blocking the perforation.

It does depend how big the perforation is in terms of the success rate. The decision regarding closure of the perforation should be based on symptoms and problems that it creates rather than the notion that exists.

I have attached some links related to the topic:

www.springerlink.com
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
www.google.co.uk

Mr Lucian Ion FRCS(Plast)
129 Harley Street
London
W1G 6BA