The human body has a beautiful and detailed structure, and if everything is healthy inside the body, a person feels good and strong. But sometimes infections, ailments, diseases, and seriousness in some parts of the body causes discomfort, and there would be a need to be treated and repaired.
Some doctors specialize in each part of the human body, such as ENT specialists. An ENT specialist/surgeon is a doctor who treats and conducts surgeries on the ear, nose, throat, head, and neck using surgical advancements and tools.
Hence, if a person is suffering from sinus problems, chronic ear infections, or throat issues, it’s time for him to pay a visit to the ENT clinic. ENT specialists solve the medical condition with medications or non-invasive treatments. However, sometimes there will be a requirement for surgery. While general doctors can only prescribe medicines for the problems that affect these areas, ENT doctors can perform surgeries to treat the medical conditions permanently. Know more about study of ENT and their surgeries.
The study of ENT is known as ‘Otorhinolaryngology’, and the specialist is known as ‘Otolaryngologist’. A special and dedicated Otolaryngology department also exists to treat children and infants.
The most common surgeries are listed below:
- Myringotomy: Eustachian tube dysfunctionality in the ear causes accumulation of fluid which results in earache, malaise, hearing problems, fever, and dizziness.
To provide relief to these effects, doctors perform this surgery. The surgery involves a small incision in the eardrum. However, sometimes a tiny opened tube is placed inside the ear to release the internal pressure. Hence, the fluid gets cleaned and healed after some time.
- Septoplasty: This surgery is necessary when the patient suffers from nose ailments such as difficulty breathing, long-term sinuses, nasal bleeding, chronic nasal congestion, nasal polyps, etc. It blocks the airflow and causes discomfort to the patient. This surgery relieves patients as the septum is aligned correctly after removing the nasal part.
- Sinus Surgery (Endoscopy): This surgery is necessary to treat sinusitis which, if not treated, can cause the sinus mucous membrane to swell, resulting in severe pain, discomfort, and breathing problems. This surgery brings relief and the fastest recovery compared to traditional sinus surgery. In addition, this surgery is painless, and it cures swelling and bleeding.
- Tympanoplasty: This surgery will treat the tympanic membrane, also known as the eardrum. The defect is corrected by implanting a graft lateral or medial on the membrane’s annulus, which treats the hearing loss and helps eliminate ear infections.
- Cochlear implant: This surgery is necessary to cure ear infections and hearing loss. In this surgery, the incision is performed from the back of the ear. Then, electrodes are implanted in the inner ear, and the incision is closed using disposable stitches.
- Tracheostomy: This surgery is done on patients who suffer sudden airways blockage due to traumatic injury of the neck and face. An incision is done in the channel, and a tube is placed in the incision area. Hence, it helps the patient breathe. In some cases, this treatment is done on patients on a ventilator for the long term.
- Snoring treatment: This surgery is prevalent in treating sleeping disorders, sleeping apnoea, and breathing problems. The tongue, nose, throat, and upper respiratory tract get treatment to broaden the airway. This surgery leads to normal breathing while sleeping and eliminates snoring.
- Thyroid surgery: This is for patients with thyroid nodules, hyperthyroidism, thyroid cancer, goiter, etc.
ENT surgery is necessary by cutting the neck horizontally to remove parts of the thyroid gland. Patients are relieved from pain and other ailments caused by the thyroid after the surgery.
- Tonsillectomy: This surgery removes tonsils, and specialists will only suggest this if the infection is reoccurring with inflammation. It is widespread in children. It is also done in sleeping apnea patients when tonsils partly block the air passage and cause difficulty in breathing.
- Radical neck dissection: This surgery is necessary to remove cancer spread by lymphatic vessels to the lymph node in the neck area. It is also essential for the patients to examine the root cause of the disease by providing pathological samples made available after this surgery.
As the ENT field has a wide range of surgical procedures involved, risks and the seriousness of potential complications can vary significantly. Usually, surgery procedures carry the risk of bleeding and infection. However, these can be eliminated or minimized with proper surgical techniques and appropriate antibiotics.
In the current advanced times, doctors and surgeons are using the most advanced and highly developed technologies, equipment, modern methods, and medicines to perform an ENT surgery. As a result, the prevalent and curable diseases and defects like sleep disorders, speech and swallowing disorders, vertigo, nose, and ear infections and injuries, head and neck conditions and injuries, sinusitis and tonsillitis, etc., are being cured with ease and perfection.
