According to a new review by researchers from Israel, steroid nasal sprays - either in isolation or in combination with antibiotic therapy - can prove effective to ease the associated symptoms of acute sinusitis besides aiding in speedy recovery.

Sinusitis is an inflammation of the mucous membranes that lines the sinus cavities. In order to treat this ailment besides treating chronic sinusitis and allergy symptoms, different steroid nasal sprays such as Rhinocort, Flonase, and Nasonex are being used today.

From News-Medical.Net:

In this review, Anca Zalmanovici, a family physician at Rabin Medical Center in Petach Tikva, and her co-author analyzed data from four randomized controlled trials including nearly 2,000 participants, all with clinical symptoms of acute sinusitis.

The review appears in the current issue of The Cochrane Library, a publication of The Cochrane Collaboration, an international organization that evaluates research in all aspects of health care. Systematic reviews draw evidence-based conclusions about medical practice after considering both the content and quality of existing trials on a topic.

Two of the studies evaluated patients at treatment centers in the United States, one took place in Turkey and the other included 71 medical centers in 14 countries.

Study participants, who underwent X-rays or nasal endoscopy to confirm diagnosis, received either a placebo or intranasal corticosteroids for two or three weeks, alone or in combination with antibiotics. Intranasal corticosteroids used included fluticasone propionate (Flonase), mometasone furoate (Nasonex) and budesonide (Rhinocort).

Overall, 73 percent of the patients treated with nasal steroids experienced relief or marked improvement of symptoms during the study period, compared with only 66.4 percent of patients who received the placebo.

“For every 100 patients treated with intranasal corticosteroids, seven additional patients had complete or marked symptom relief,” compared to those in the placebo group, the reviewers found.

Researchers pooled data from three of the four studies, excluding the lowest-quality study from the statistical analysis.
None of the studies reported serious side effects, and rates of sinusitis relapse were similar between the treatment and placebo groups.

Stronger doses of nasal steroids appeared to work better. Patients receiving daily doses of 400 micrograms were more likely to experience relief of sinusitis symptoms, than were patients receiving 200-microgram doses.

It was suggested that more data is required before routine recommendations on intranasal corticosteroids, as per Allen Seiden, M.D., director of the University of Cincinnati Taste and Smell Center.