Home Care Instructions

Your surgeon has placed, inside your nasal passages, a double-tube airway. This device allows normal breathing after nose and/or sinus surgery, even if your nose has been “packed”.

To keep the two airway tubes open, you will take home a small syringe and plastic tip. You, or your caretaker, can easily and painlessly flush the tubes to clear any blood or mucus that may accumulate. Your recovery room nurse will attach the tip to the syringe and demonstrate, to you and your caretaker, how to flush the tubes.

Use the full syringe, 3 cc, of warm, not hot, tap water to irrigate the tubes. The water will pass into the throat and can either be swallowed or spit out. The flushing schedule is every 4 hours the day of surgery, and once during that first night. For the second day, and beyond, generally, 2-3 flushes during the day are adequate. If you cannot clear the tubes, call your surgeon for further instructions.

The airway will be removed by your surgeon, in his office, in accordance with his particular post-operative timetable. The device is made of soft, latex-free, medical-grade silicone that does not stick to the inside of the nose. Therefore, removal is quick and virtually painless.

If you have any questions, contact your surgeon.