A PROSPECTIVE RANDOMIZED STUDY TO ASSESS THE EFFICACY OF POSTOPERATIVE NASAL MEDICATION AFTER ENDONASAL SURGERY

Post-operative nasal medications are commonly used following routine s eptal or turbinate surgery but their efficacy in removing blood clots, improving the sensation of a patent airway and promoting healing are unknown. This prospective randomized trial of patients undergoing sept al and/or turbinate surgery assessed the efficacy of three commonly us ed nasal medicines, 0.5 per cent ephedrine hydrochloride nasal drops, betamethasone sodium phosphate (Betnosol(R)) nose drops and alkaline n asal douches, in producing the sensation of a patent airway in the 14 days following surgery. Ninety-seven patients were randomized into the three treatment groups and a control group who received no nasal medi cation. Patients assessed their nasal patency by means of a visual ana logue scale (VAS) and any complications of treatment were recorded. St atistical analysis of the 76 complete sets of results using the Mann-W hitney U-test showed that there was a significant difference in the di stribution of all of the treatments for each of the time intervals (p< 0.05). Glass rank biserial correlation coefficients were all small (rg <0.085) but the most significant differences were between ephedrine an d the control group at two hours, two, seven and 10 days (0.02, 0.054, 0.057, 0.085 respectively), alkaline nasal douches being most signifi cant at four and 14 days (0.06 and 0.0722 respectively).