[Effect of intranasal treatment with capsaicin on polyp recurrence after polypectomy and ethmoidectomy]

To evaluate the influence of polypectomy and anterior ethmoidectomy associated with intranasal applications of capsaicin on the recurrence of nasal polyps.

Fifty one patients (19 females, 32 males, mean age 43) undergoing polypectomy and anterior ethmoidectomy were included in the study. In 29 patients, a cotton pellet soaked with capsaicin (3 x 10(-6) mol, dissolved in 70% ethanol) was left into the middle meatus for 20 min under local anaesthesia. As a control group, 22 patients were treated with the capsaicin vehicle alone (70% ethanol). All patients studied received the intranasal capsaicin or vehicle treatment once a week for 5 weeks. The clinical objective examination and the subjective evaluation of nasal obstruction, rhinorrhea were recorded by means of a visual analogic scale graded from 0 to 4 throughout the study.

Patients treated with intranasal capsaicin application reported 9 months later and 55 months later separately, a marked reduction of their subjective evaluation of nasal obstruction when compared to the pretreatment evaluation (P < 0.01). In contrast, patients treated with the capsaicin vehicle alone did not have any significant improvement of their subjective evaluation of nasal obstruction. Subjective rhinorrhea was not modified by either treatment. Of 29 patients with capsaicin treatment, 25 (86.2%) patients (9 months later) and 20 (69%) patients (55 months later) showed satisfactory result, compared to 10 (45.4%) patients and 8 (36.4%) patients separately in the control group, the difference was significant (P < 0.01).

Intranasal capsaicin application can reduce polyp recurrence and nasal obstruction after polypectomy and ethmoidectomy.