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Updated: Jul 19, 2026

Modeling and Simulations of Olfactory Drug Delivery with Passive and Active Controls of Nasally Inhaled Pharmaceutical Aerosols
Published on: May 20, 2016
Influence of passive humidification on nasal conditioning
Tilman Keck1, Jochen Dürr, Richard Leiacker
1Department of Otorhinolaryngology, University of Ulm, Ulm, Germany. tilman.keck@uniklinik-ulm.de
Background:
Passive humidifiers (PH) have been beneficial to upper and lower airway humidity, especially in patients who are in a long-time ventilated intensive care unit. The goal of this pilot study was to provide nasal conditioning data and measure the benefit of a nasal PH to spontaneously breathing, conscious subjects.
Methods:
Eleven healthy volunteers had to wear a PH for 1 hour, which was introduced into both nasal vestibules. The PH had a heat and moisture restoring body of polyurethane foam with an open-pore structure. Before and after application of the nasal PH, nasal conditioning was measured and nasal symptoms were assessed by the participants.
Results:
Ten minutes after removal of the PH a significant increase was observed for the scores for nasal patency and nasal humidity.
Conclusion:
We hypothesize that the nasal PH could provide a valuable contribution to the supportive therapy of diseases that accompany nasal mucosal dryness.
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