The effectiveness of nasal irrigation in the treatment of infant nasal problems.

概要

論文の詳細を見る
Infant nasal problems are common for ENT clinicians. As their initial therapy usually involves broad spectrum antibiotics, it is often some cases require long-term antibiotic therapy. In treating pediatric patients, nasal hypertonic saline irrigation using a small spray bottle has been adopted. The effectiveness of this method was evaluated in 30 children age 5 years or younger, who had been treated for nasal problems. The patients' parents kept diaries about their children's nasal symptoms for 2 weeks during the period of irrigation therapy. The children's noses were inspected and the bacteriological examinations were done once a week.In more than 50% of the cases, both subjective and objective symptoms improved after the two weeks of the irrigation therapy. While the M. catarrhalis, H. influenzae and S. pneumoniae were detected as the main strains before treatment, in most cases pathogenic bacteria decreased or disappeared after the irrigation therapy in spite of using no antibiotics during the same period.Although 5 patients suffered from acute otitis media during this study, the results encourage the adoption of nasal irrigation as an additional therapy for infant nasal problems, and suggest a reduction of the amount of antibiotics.
日本鼻科学会の論文