The Usefullness of Hyaluronidase(H-LASE(R)) on Treatment of Nasal Bone Fractures

ABSTRACT

A nose is the most prominent feature of the face and prone to trauma. The incidence of nasal bone fracture is highest among the facial bone fractures. Any slight displacement of the bones or cartilages is easily noticed, and so a high degree of accuracy is required in the reduction of nasal bone fracture. But swelling and edema of the injured nose prevent earlier and accurate reduction of nasal bone, so that we used hyaluronidase to reduce swelling and edema on treatment of nasal bone fractures. This procedure was performed to 27 patients for last six months. Among these patients, 12 patients wanted early operation, so closed reduction was performed within 1 day after the fracture(group A). And 15 patients were those who still had swelling and edema on operation day after 5 to 7 days after the fracture(group B). Intraoperatively, before closed reduction, we injected hyaluronidase on swollen nose subcutaneously and compressed swollen area gently with fingers. By using hyaluronidase, posttraumatic days for surgery has lessened and more accurate manual palpation of fractured nasal bone was possible due to decreased swelling and edema of nose. A hyaluronidase injection during treatment of nasal bone fracture has benefit on more earlier and accurate reduction by reducing swelling and edema of nose.