Nasal Polyps are soft, painless, noncancerous growths on the lining of the nasal passages or sinuses. They hang down like teardrops or grapes. They result from chronic inflammation due to asthma, recurring infection, allergies, drug sensitivity or certain immune disorders.
Small nasal polyps may not cause symptoms. Larger growths or groups of nasal polyps can block the nasal passages or lead to breathing problems, a loss of smell, and frequent infections.
Symptoms
Nasal polyps are associated with inflammation of the lining of the nasal passages and sinuses that lasts more than 12 weeks (chronic rhinosinusitis). However, it’s possible to have chronic sinusitis without nasal polyps.
Common signs and symptoms of chronic sinusitis with nasal polyps include:
- A runny nose
- Persistent stuffiness
- Postnasal drip
- Decreased or absent sense of smell
- Loss of sense of taste
- Facial pain or headache
- Pain in your upper teeth
- A sense of pressure on the forehead and face
- Snoring
Causes
Scientists don’t yet fully understand what causes nasal polyps. It’s not clear why some people develop chronic inflammation or why ongoing inflammation triggers polyp formation in some people and not in others. The inflammation occurs in the fluid-producing lining (mucous membrane) of the nose and sinuses.
There’s some evidence that people who develop polyps have a different immune system response and different chemical markers in their mucous membranes than do those who don’t develop polyps.
Nasal polyps can form at any age, but they’re most common in young and middle-aged adults. Nasal polyps may form anywhere in your sinuses or nasal passages, but they appear most often in an area where sinuses near your eyes, nose and cheekbones all drain through winding passages into your nose (ostiomeatal complex).
Risk factors: Any condition that triggers chronic inflammation in the nasal passages or sinuses, such as infections or allergies, may increase the risk of developing nasal polyps.
Conditions often associated with nasal polyps include:
- Asthma, a disease that causes overall airway inflammation and constriction
- Aspirin sensitivity may cause some people to be more likely to develop nasal polyps
- Allergic fungal sinusitis, an allergy to airborne fungi
- Cystic fibrosis, a genetic disorder that results in the production and secretion of abnormally thick, sticky fluids, including thick mucus from nasal and sinus membranes
- Churg-Strauss syndrome, a rare disease that causes the inflammation of blood vessels
Diagnosis
A diagnosis is usually made based on the symptoms, a general physical exam and an examination of the nose. Polyps may be visible with the aid of a simple lighted instrument.
Other diagnostic tests include:
Nasal Polyps. Therapy.
Nasal endoscopy.
Use saline nasal drops. To help relieve nasal congestion, try saline nasal drops, they’re effective, safe and nonirritating, even for children. In infants, experts recommend instilling several saline drops into one nostril, then gently suctioning that nostril with a bulb syringe (push the bulb in about 1/4 to 1/2 inch, or about 6 to 12 millimeters). Doing this before feeding your baby can improve your child’s ability to nurse or take a bottle, and before bedtime it may improve sleep. Saline nasal sprays may be used in older children.
Treatments and drugs
A long-term treatment plan to manage the symptoms is needed and to treat factors, such as allergies, that may contribute to chronic inflammation.
In addition, beneficial, holistic therapies are also applied at EΥiasis Center, which combine medical acupuncture with the local treatment of the nose with EY-LLLT (Light Level Laser Therapy) for the effective treatment of nasal polyps
The treatment goal for nasal polyps is to reduce their size or eliminate
them. Medications are usually the first approach, which include topical nasal sprays and corticosteroids. Surgery may sometimes be needed, but it may not provide a permanent solution because polyps tend to recur.
Surgery: If drug treatment doesn’t shrink or eliminate nasal polyps, endoscopic surgery is recommended to remove polyps and to correct problems with the sinuses that make them prone to inflammation and polyp development.
In functional endoscopic surgery (FESS) the surgeon inserts a small tube with a magnifying lens or tiny camera (endoscope) into the nostrils and guides it into the sinus cavities.
After surgery, the use of a saltwater (saline) rinse to promote healing is recommended as well as medication such as a corticosteroid nasal spray to help prevent the recurrence of nasal polyps.
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