Nasal Saline Solution More Effective Than Spray

By Stanley Lang

Recent research has looked at the question of whether it makes any difference in the treatment of chronic sinusitis when nasal saline solution irrigation is done as opposed to just using the solution as a spray. This article is a review of that research.

In this research the condition of interest was chronic sinusitis. This means that there is a low grade infection going on in the sinuses. In some cases this infection has actually been going on for more than a year which is a long time to put up with symptoms.

The reason that saline irrigation is even being studied is that the sinus infection really can't get better if the sinus openings can't be cleared of the stuff that is blocking them. This "stuff" might be secretions and often are very thick and hard for the body to move. The presumption is that these secretions can more easily be moved if the area is irrigated virorously.

The big question the researches were looking at was whether or not it actually made a difference in using a nasal saline solution in the nose, and, if it did make a difference, whether it was important that it be a saline solution that irrigated into the the nose or whether it would work just to spray the solution into the nose.

The research supported two different conclusions. First of all it is helpful to treat the symptoms of a chronic sinus infection with nasal saline solution irrigation. This helped with symptoms and treatment. But they also found that the nasal saline solution when used to irrigate was more effective than when used as a nasal spray.

So to recap. It does make a difference if you use a nasal saline solution to irrigate your nose if you have a chronic sinus infection. It not only helps to use this kind of nasal solution, it actually helps to use the solution as an irrigation tool compared to just using the spray. So if you have this condition, you likely have a real benefit in using the nasal saline solution as an irrigation.N - 31822

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