Efficacy of Nasal Irrigation as Adjuvant to Intranasalcorticosteroid in Treatment of Chronic Rhinosinusitis

Introduction: Chronic rhinosinusitis is a common condition that is dened as inammation of the nose and paranasal sinuses. Patients experience symptoms of nasal obstruction, rhinorrhoea, sneezing and nasal itching, which may affect their quality of life. Nasal irrigation is an old practice of upper respiratory tract care that likely originated in the Ayurvedic medical tradition. It is used alone or in association with other therapies in several conditions—including chronic rhinosinusitis, allergic rhinitis and to treat and prevent upper respiratory tract infections. Method: We performed a comparative, single Centered, prospective, non-Randomized, non-Blinded Interventional Study on 100 patients (18-60 years) of diagnosed Chronic rhinosinusitis showing clinical symptoms which affect quality of life. Study subjects were taken from OPD of ENT Department, LLR hospital, GSVM medical college Kanpur and prior consent is obtained before the start of study. Result: The average change from baseline in symptoms over the treatment period was greater for the group Awho were on intranasal corticosteroid and nasal irrigation (percentage reduction in the QOL score values after 12 weeks follow up was found to be 69.55%) compared to group B who were given intranasal corticosteroid only (percentage reduction was found 68.18%). QOLimproved in both groups compared to baseline with no signicant difference between the groups. Conclusion:In the study it was concluded that nasal irrigation had positive effect but no signicant effect as adjuvant with intranasal corticosteroid on improvement in quality of life as assessed by QOLscore, over follow up period in patient with chronic rhinosinusitis. Hence nasal irrigation can be used as a treatment modality in chronic rhinosinusitis to reduce the morbidity on long term basis, though a long-term study is further required before commenting it as efcacious and established treatment modality.