Affiliation:
1. University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey School of Medicine/Kennedy Health System, Stratford, N.J.
2. University of Virginia Medical Center, Charlottesville
3. Department of Otorhinolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, Philadelphia.
Abstract
Patients with sinus and nasal disorders whose symptoms persist despite primary care may benefit from a referral to a dedicated nose and sinus center where all treatment modalities are available. The essential principle of a multimodality approach is that medical therapy, allergy treatment, and surgery are all important and useful tools. While various medical and surgical treatments of sinus and nasal disorders have been well described in the literature, overall assessments of comprehensive treatment are uncommon. For more than 7 years, the office practice of the senior author (D.G.B.) has been dedicated to the treatment of sinus and nasal disorders. In an effort to assess the results of the multimodality approach to therapy delivered there, we mailed questionnaires to 1,800 patients who had been treated at this practice over a 3-year period. Responses from 222 of these patients revealed that patients required less medication following treatment with a multimodality approach and that they expressed a high degree of satisfaction with the comprehensive care they received. In addition, most patients with asthma experienced relief of their asthma symptoms following treatment for sinonasal disease. We conclude that a stepwise, multimodality, specialty-center approach to treatment is beneficial for patients with persistent sinonasal disorders.