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kbolser t1_j1jf0sr wrote

Reply to comment by przyssawka in What specifically about ginger/menthol/wasabi causes one's sinuses to open? by Bartendiesthrowaway

Not so much the size of the conchae as these as the scrolls of bone, but the venous plexuses that overly them. Epinephrine (adrenaline) and the like cause the smooth muscle in their walls to constrict making that tissue smaller and opening the passages

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przyssawka t1_j1jfngc wrote

Conchae are more than just the scrolls of bone in anatomy. A popular outpatient procedure conchoplasty (also called turbinoplasty) removes (or simply destroys) the mucosal part of conchae usually without touching the bone itself (though "breaking" the conchae is sometime a part of the procedure)

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[deleted] t1_j1jgd9p wrote

[removed]

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przyssawka t1_j1jgskg wrote

The confusion may be due to poorly written wikipedia entry on conchae, which is extremely inconsistent:

>Conchae (/ˈkɒnkiː/), also called a nasal turbinate or turbinal,[1][2] is a long, narrow, curled shelf of bone that protrudes into the breathing passage of the nose

followed immediately by:

>Conchae are composed of pseudostratified columnar, ciliated respiratory epithelium with a thick, vascular, and erectile glandular tissue layer.

I'm a head and neck surgeon and I've never heard anyone in the field make a distinction between the mucosa covering the concha and the bony part, mostly because it's the mucosal part that's important for things like FESS procedure (outside of cases of Concha Bullosa).

It's similar to the labyrinth of the inner ear. Can mean the petrous part alone but it's commonly used to refer to what it contains as well. Anatomically the whole structure is called a concha and that includes the mucosa.

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kbolser t1_j1jhbfk wrote

I need to read up on it more (and I don’t mean Wikipedia). I respect your credentials, but I’m still not convinced from a strictly anatomical perspective

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przyssawka t1_j1jhn7i wrote

What you're claiming may be an actual anatomical distinction, I'm just saying from a professional perspective I have never heard any fellow ENT not include the erectile tissue as part of the "concha"

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