Objective/ Hypothesis: Chronic rhinosinusitis with nasal polyps (CRSwNP) is a disease of the nose and paranasal sinuses characterized by mucosal thickening and polyp formation. It is a multifactorial disease with a possible role of infection, allergy, mucociliary dysfunction and swelling of the mucosa. Treatment of CRSwNP can include medical treatment, surgical treatment or both. Doxycycline is a semi-synthetic tetracycline with broad spectrum antibacterial action as well as anti-inflammatory effect. This dual action of doxycycline might give it a role in the treatment of CRSwNP. In this study we have studied a possible role of doxycycline in management of patients with CRSwNP.
Study design: This is a prospective case-study.
Methods: Sixty patients with CRSwNP were included in this study. They were divided into 2 groups. Group (A) received oral prednisolone and oral doxycycline for 3 weeks. Group (B) received only oral prednisolone for the same period. Clinical assessment of both treatment modalities using total symptom score and polyp size score, as well as radiologic assessment using computed tomography of the paranasal sinuses (CT PNS) were compared. Total and absolute eosinophilic counts in complete blood count (CBC) were also compared.
Results: There was no statistically significant difference between the 2 groups in terms of total symptom score, polyp size score, total radiologic score. The absolute eosinophilic count was statistically significantly better in group A than in group B.
Conclusion: In patients with CRSwNP, adding doxycycline to oral prednisolone did not show us any added clinical or radiologic benefit of statistical importance.