It is well established that the burden of chronic rhinosinusitis on healthcare costs and patients’ quality of life is high, and that current mainstream treatment options of oral or topical steroids are not without problems. This paper compares two RCTSs (RESOLVE I and RESOLVE II) which each evaluated the use of a second generation bioabsorbable corticosteroid eluting implant (the Sinuva Sinus Implant) which delivers 1350mcg mometasone furoate over a 60-day period vs. a sham procedure whereby the device was inserted in-office and then removed under blinded conditions.
The analysis of the pooled data supports the use of these steroid-eluting devices in addition to topical nasal steroids, as the authors were able to demonstrate a reduction in patients listed for revision surgery after their use, an improved endoscopic score by video assessment of the treated nasal cavities by blinded independent ENT surgeons and, most importantly, improved scores for nasal congestion as assessed by the patients themselves.
More studies are in the pipeline for longer term or multiple treatments and it will certainly be interesting to see the results of these future studies, but in the meantime, this seems to highlight a potential treatment option for a difficult-to-manage cohort of patients with recalcitrant CRSwNP.
