What are the causes and symptoms of perforated septum?
There are several causes of a perforated septum. • Wearing ornaments in the nose. To hang an ornament from the middle of the nose requires that the tissue directly in front of the septal cartilage be pierced or perforated. • Sniffing cocaine. Cocaine is a potent vasoconstrictor, which means that it causes small blood vessels to close. It is used in nose surgery because it shrinks mucus membranes, permitting better visualization and access into the nose. Used continuously, tissues are deprived of blood and die. The nasal septum is the most vulnerable to this effect of sniffing cocaine. • Getting the septum cauterized. Nosebleeds usually come from the front part of the nasal septum, which is rich in blood vessels. Uncontrolled repeated bleeding from these vessels may require cautery–burning the vessels with electricity or chemicals to close them off. Injudicious cautery of both sides of the septum has in the past led to death of tissue and consequent perforation. • More and more people
