A Study to Assess the Efficacy of Different Concentration of Nasal Douching on Symptoms and Mucociliary Clearance in Persistent Allergic Rhinitis

Introduction: Allergic rhinitis (AR) is acknowledged as a significant health challenge on a global scale affecting 08 – 39.7% of total population. The management of Allergic rhinitis encompasses patient education on avoidance of allergens as well as the use of pharmacotherapy and allergen- specific immunotherapy. Avoidance of allergen may not be practically applicable always and the pharmacological treatment has side effects on long term use. Hence an alternate treatment modality is required to alleviate the symptom for long duration with less side effects. Materials and Methods: we conducted a randomized double blinded prospective study on 75 patients with allergic rhinitis. They were randomized into 3 groups, 1st group using isotonic saline irrigation, 2nd group using hypertonic nasal irrigation and 3rd group as control. The evaluation was done using SNOT22 score and nasal mucociliary clearance time. Results: Isotonic Saline Nasal Irrigation was found to reduce overall symptoms better than Hypertonic Saline Nasal Irrigation group. Nasal douching also improved Nasal Mucociliary Clearance. Isotonic Saline Nasal Irrigation restored Mucociliary Clearance better than Hypertonic Saline Nasal Irrigation. Compliance to treatment was found to be good for short term. Conclusion: Nasal irrigation along with other medications definitely had better outcome in symptom control in patients with AR. However studies to know the effect of nasal douching in AR for longer duration are needed