Comparing the Efficacy of Alkaline Nasal Douches Versus Decongestant Nasal Drops in Postoperative Care After Septal Surgery: A Randomised Single Blinded Clinical Pilot Study

To compare the efficacy of alkaline nasal douches and decongestant nasal drops following nasal septal surgery. This was a prospective, randomised, single-blind pilot study. Twenty patients were included in each arm of the study undergoing elective nasal septal surgery. The primary outcome measure was nasal congestion. Secondary outcome measures were anosmia, facial pain, nasal discharge, and sneezing/itching. This study does not show any statistically significant difference between the two treatment groups. Symptoms of nasal congestion (P = 0.3), facial pain (P = 0.932), nasal discharge (P = 0.98), sneezing (P = 0.59) and anosmia (P = 0.208) were analysed before conclusion. Three patients in saline group and one patient in the nasal drops group had poor compliance to follow the advice, scoring 2 on a VAS score but the treatment was tolerated well in majority of the patients. No statistical significant differences were noted on analysing the post operative complications in either group. In this study, both nasal douches and decongestant nasal drop were well tolerated. Both treatments provided good postoperative relief from nasal congestion, nasal discharge, sneezing, facial pain and anosmia as days progressed. The post operative examination of the nose among these patients revealed no significant complications in either of the study arm.