Adrenaline Solution Irrigation and Bleeding During Sinus Surgery

Functional Endoscopic Sinus Surgery (FESS) is a common, effective and minimally invasive surgical procedure indicated mainly to treat medically resistant chronic rhinosinusitis with or without nasal polyposis. The surgery is often performed under general anesthesia and proceeds in anatomically based surgical landmarks steps to facilitate drainage and ventilation of the paranasal sinuses. As any other endoscopic and laparoscopic procedures the operation requires dry surgical field to ensure accurate identification and visualization of structures and smooth surgical dissection progression. Intranasal bleeding during FESS will increase time of surgery and perioperative complications. Also it could affect healing process, increase adhesion formation and lengthening recovery period . Different methods and maneuvers have been described in the literature to reduce intra-operative bleeding during sinus surgery. These include: elevation of the patient's head, the use of bipolar cautery and powered instruments; premedication with beta blockers; a controlled hypotensive anesthesia technique; total intravenous anesthesia, topical hemostatic biomaterials and local application of vasoconstrictors. Adrenaline is one of the most commonly used topical vasoconstrective agent. Because systemic absorption of infiltrated adrenaline can give rise to a sudden increase in blood levels of catecholamine compared to topical instillation and thus various life-threatening complications, such as : cardiac arrhythmia, cardiac arrest, cardiomyopathy, pulmonary edema, and central retinal artery occlusion; many surgeons prefer to use instillation of adrenaline over infiltration in FESS