Motivation

The motivation for this study arises from the critical role of the nasal cavity in respiration, conditioning inhaled air by heating, humidifying, and filtering dust and bioaerosols. Nasal airway obstructions, such as deviated septum or chronic rhinitis, impair these functions and reduce breathing comfort, often requiring surgical interventions like septoplasty and turbinoplasty. While clinical evaluation methods such as rhinomanometry and acoustic rhinometry provide indirect metrics, they cannot fully capture the complex flow dynamics underlying surgical outcomes. Previous computational studies have offered insight but lacked robust experimental validation due to the challenges of measuring flow in the narrow, intricate nasal geometry. Therefore, this work employs four-dimensional magnetic resonance velocimetry, combined with computational fluid dynamics, to directly quantify postoperative changes in nasal airflow and validate simulation models—providing a more comprehensive framework for understanding and improving the functional impact of nasal surgery.