The role of antibiotic therapy and nasal packing in septoplasty

Both systemic antibiotic therapy and nasal packing are used frequently in septoplasty. Nevertheless, there is still great disagreement among authors around the real advantages with regard to the efficacy of both of these procedures in septal surgery. The aim of the present review was to evaluate the more recent data published on this topic. One appropriate string was run on PubMed to retrieve articles dealing with the topics mentioned above. A double cross-check was performed on citations and full-text articles found using the selected inclusion and exclusion criteria. Overall, the articles we analyzed indicated the poor utility of routine antibiotic therapy and nasal packing during septoplasty, the latter procedure producing more complications than advantages. In conclusion, on the basis of the recent literature, the use of systemic antibiotic prophylaxis and nasal packing in septal surgery seems to be a non-rational procedure.