A NEW TREATMENT FOR NASAL POLYPS
- Posted on: Dec 15 2020
If you have ever been diagnosed with nasal polyps, you know that they can have a big impact on your quality of life. People with nasal polyps often experience diminished smell and taste, sinus pressure or pain, trouble sleeping, recurring sinus infections, and trouble breathing.
What are Nasal Polyps?
Nasal polyps are soft, non-cancerous growths that form from the lining of the nasal or sinus membranes. They often occur alongside asthma and those with severe allergies. Nasal polyps are not an infection, but an overactive immune response to an allergy or sinus infection. Patients with nasal polyps are oftentimes more sensitive to mold, and they therefore sometimes occur alongside “fungal sinus infections” or allergic fungal sinusitis (AFS).
Nasal Polyp Treatment Options
Patients with nasal polyps are often prescribed oral steroids or steroid nasal sprays that can temporarily reduce the size of the polyps. If necessary modern office-based polypectomy procedures can be done safely and easily to remove nasal polyps. However, even after appropriate treatment nasal polyps often recur.
Fortunately, a new medication called Dupixent® has made it easier to keep nasal polyps at bay and reduce the severity and frequency of Acute Fungal Sinusitis (AFS).
Dupixent® is a type of prescription medication called a “biologic”. It is an antibody that is given by an injection under the skin and is administered at home by the patient every other week. Dupixent® works by targeting the specific part of the immune system that leads to polyp production.
Allergy drops, or sublingual immunotherapy, is used in combination with Dupixent® to build up the body’s immune system to certain allergens such as mold. Because allergy drops and Dupixent® target different parts of the immune system, they work best when used in combination to prevent the recurrence of nasal polyps. If you are prescribed Dupixent®, you will be shown in the office how to administer the injection safely at home.
Dupixent Results
Below are CT sinus images of patients before starting Dupixent® vs. after treatment with Dupixent® (This is an actual patient at our clinic).
Tagged with: biologic, Dupixent, nasal polyps, treatment for nasal polyps
Posted in: acute fungal sinusitis, Allergy Drops, Nasal Polyps
