Consider secondary surgery if medication is not effective What should I do if I unfortunately have a recurrence after surgery? Patients are advised to continue using all the drugs just mentioned, including: nasal hormones, macrolide antibiotics, mucus-thinning drugs, interleukin receptor antagonists, and in severe cases, oral hormones for a short time and daily nasal irrigation. With these interventions, some recurrent nasal polyps may shrink and the patient’s symptoms may improve. There are also some patients whose polyps are still obvious after medication and who have symptoms such as stuffy and runny nose and stuffy head, which are very unfavorable especially for patients who suffer from asthma themselves, and we may recommend the patient to undergo surgery again.
Refractory patients with high rate of reoperation Some patients are really very difficult to treat, such as patients with refractory sinusitis-nasal polyps mentioned many times before. One study showed that patients with asthma had a reoperation rate of 50%, and patients with aspirin intolerance had a reoperation rate of 80%. So can such patients tolerate repeated surgery? Generally speaking there is no problem and reoperation is sometimes inevitable for better treatment of sinus polyps. Of course, the surgeon will make the surgical plan according to the patient’s general condition.
How can I tell if I have refractory sinusitis – nasal polyps?
So how can I know if I have refractory sinusitis? It can be judged from several aspects.
1, medical history: for example, the patient has a history of asthma, aspirin intolerance, allergic rhinitis, etc.
2, multiple nasal polyps: this type of patient’s nasal cavity is full of polyps, if you take a CT, you can see eight sinuses full of lesions inside, and even some patients appear osteitis performance, all suggest that treatment will be more difficult.
3, allergic: if allergen testing suggests that the patient’s symptoms are related to allergies, then such patients also belong to the recurrence-prone population.
In short, the doctor will have a general judgment of whether the patient belongs to refractory sinusitis through consultation and examination before surgery, and will inform the patient of the difficulty of surgery and the possibility of recurrence after surgery. Patients with refractory sinusitis should pay more attention to postoperative review and medication to prevent or delay recurrence and improve quality of life.