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Updated: Aug 7, 2026

Modeling and Simulations of Olfactory Drug Delivery with Passive and Active Controls of Nasally Inhaled Pharmaceutical Aerosols
Published on: May 20, 2016
The 'best method' of topical nasal drug delivery: comparison of seven techniques
P Merkus1, F A Ebbens, B Muller
1Department of Otorhinolaryngology & Head and Neck Surgery, VU Medical Center, Amsterdam, Netherlands. P.Merkus@VUmc.nl
Objective:
To determine whether there is a 'best' technique for delivering drugs to the middle meatus.
Design:
Single-blind cross-over study in healthy individuals using endoscopic video-imaging.
Participants:
A dyed test formulation was administered intranasally on seven non-sequential days to ten healthy individuals with no 'nasal' history. The participants were recruited through advertisement.
Main Outcome Measures:
Comparison of seven different techniques, 20 nostrils and 140 endoscopic videos for the deposition patterns of dyed test formulation. Analysis was possible in 90% of all endoscopic videos. Three head positions were tested for both nasal drops and nasal sprays.
Results:
Deposition of dyed test formulation near the middle meatus was observed in 43% of all observations. No significant differences were observed in terms of delivery between any of the seven techniques.
Conclusions:
Our study suggests there may not be a single 'best' technique for topical nasal drug delivery. A more individual approach to topical nasal drug treatment, taking anatomy and head position into account would seem to be more appropriate.
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