Young's Operation

Young's operation is an otorhinolaryngology procedure for atrophic rhinitis, first described by the surgeon Austen Young in 1967. It closes off the affected nasal cavity using mucocutaneous flaps sutured in two layers, mucosa and then skin, and the cavity is kept sealed for about six months before doctors examine whether the underlying crusting has resolved and consider reopening it in a further operation. Young performed the first such operation, closing both nostrils, on a patient in Sheffield in 1963; when the nose was reopened in 1965 the patient's symptoms had resolved, though with a lasting loss of smell and diminished taste.