Publication:

The role of budesonide and mometasone furoate on the nasal and sinus symptoms in allergic rhinosinuitis: a randomized study

Background Allergic rhinosinuitis is one of the common clinical problems that otorhinolaryngologist faces daily. Sinusitis symptoms like headache, facial pain and eyelid oedema are frequent in patients with allergic rhinitis, which in turn will affect the cognitive function, productivity and quality of life which impair the efficiency of the individual work performance. It may result in a prescription for antibiotics but the role of antibiotics is debated. Anti-inflammatory drugs such as intranasal steroids play a major role in reducing the symptoms of allergic rhinitis. We plan to compare the efficacy of budesonide nasal spray with mometasone furoate nasal spray in reducing the nasal and sinus symptoms of allergic rhinosinusitis.

Methods 146 patients of allergic rhinitis with sinusitis symptoms were randomly divided into 2 groups as Group A (n=70) received 256 μg budesonide nasal spray of once daily and Group B (n=76) received 200 μg of mometasone furoate nasal spray daily. The patients were assessed by sino-nasal outcome test (SNOT) score and total nasal symptom score (TNSS) at 2, 6 and 12 weeks interval.

Results There is significant reduction in both the groups, in respect to the SNOT and TNSS scores. We also observed significant improvement in the SNOT score in the budesonide group when compared with the mometasone furoate group by 6weeks which continued till the 12 weeks (p=0.001).

Conclusions Budesonide nasal spray is more effective than mometasone furoate spray in managing both sinus and nasal symptoms in allergic rhinitis.