Data-Driven Surgical Decision Making in Nasal Airway Surgery

What are the factors that influence our surgical decision making in functional nasal airway surgery? Certainly, we rely on individual patient symptoms, medical history, and physical examination to help us determine the specific interventions that we believe will most benefit our patients. However, there is undoubtedly a great deal of variability in the specific approaches or techniques that we use. Our surgical decision making is based on our prior training, personal experiences, and in many cases, surgical dogma that has been passed down to us from mentors or conferences that we have attended. Unfortunately, surgical dogma is often pervasive but lacking in evidence or data to support it. With the emphasis on evidence-based medicine and patient outcomes over the past few decades, there is an increasing importance on data-driven surgical decision making.