Improvements in heat recovery characteristics in the nasal cavity after septoturbinoplasty

The air conditioning capacity of the nasal cavity is influenced by nasal septal deviations. As corrective surgery for septal deviation alters the anatomical structure of the nasal cavity, modification of the airflow behavior after surgery is likely to also change the heat recovery characteristics. The present study investigated the improvement in heat recovery characteristics after septoturbinoplasty using computational fluid dynamics techniques with realistic cavity models constructed from computed tomography scans. The results indicated that the mucosal surface heat transfer rate was strongly correlated with the airflow rate in both the inspiration and expiration phases (Pearson correlation coefficient greater than 0.9). Because the increase in the airflow rate was greater during expiration, the heat recovery rate with the same breathing effort improved by more than 30 % after surgery.