The effect of thyme honey nasal spray on chronic rhinosinusitis: a double-blind randomized controlled clinical trial

Abstract

Chronic rhinosinusitis is a common disease which causes persisting inflammatory conditions of one or more sinuses. This study was designed to evaluate the effect of thyme honey nasal spray as an adjunctive medication on chronic rhinosinusitis after functional endoscopic sinus surgery. This was a randomized, placebo controlled, double-blind clinical study. 64 patients with chronic rhinosinusitis undergoing functional endoscopic sinus surgery were enrolled in this study. Patients were randomized and blinded to receive either placebo or thyme honey nasal spray in addition to the standard regimen postoperatively. Patients were visited on postoperative days 7, 30 and 60. The sino-nasal outcome test, endoscopic grading system and sinus CT-scan were scored before operation and on the day 60 after surgery. 54 patients completed the study. Significant improvement was observed in both treatment groups. There were no significant changes in SNOT-22, endoscopy and CT-scan scores between the two study groups. However, a greater reduction in endoscopic scores was shown in thyme honey group. The incidence of adverse effects was not significantly different between the groups, but synechiae formation and epistaxis were lower in treatment group. Thyme honey nasal spray seems to be a low-priced potential adjuvant remedy with excellent safety profile, to reduce inflammation and polyp formation and also fostering mucosal healing for patients suffering from chronic rhinosinusitis. However, further studies are recommended.

IL-33 Expression in Chronic Rhinosinusitis with Nasal Polyps and Its Relationship with Clinical Severity

“…Therefore, we can conclude that eosinophils may trigger a more severe form of inflammation in the context of CRSwNP compared to the noneosinophilic inflammatory cells. However, our results showed no significant difference between the ECRSwNP and nECRSwNP groups with respect to the SNOT-20 score, VAS score, endoscopy score, or CT score ( p > 0.05); these findings are consistent with the results of a recently published paper that compared the clinical markers of CRS with disease severity [21,22,23]. …”

Sino‐Nasal outcome test‐22 outcomes after sinus surgery: A systematic review and meta‐analysis

“…A total of 31 studies were considered to be duplicates from the same cohort, and an additional 53 failed to meet inclusion/exclusion criteria. The final study list included 40 unique patient cohorts published from 2008 to 2016 and representing institutions from North America (n = 14), Europe (n = 12), Middle East (n = 6), Australia (n = 3), Asia (n = 3), and South America (n = 2) . The majority of studies were prospective observational cohorts (n =2 3), with the remainder being surgical arms from randomized clinical trials (n = 7), retrospective cohorts (n = 7), or case‐control studies (n = 3).…”

Honey and beehive products in otorhinolaryngology: a narrative review

“…Honey did not show to improve sinonasal mucosal healing after Merocel packing after functional endoscopic sinus surgery (FESS) in patients suffering from AFRS, but showed a symptom improvement without a clear mucosal and bacteriological enhancement in AFRS patients . In patients with bilateral chronic rhinosinusitis undergoing FESS, no changes in symptoms, endoscopy and CT scan were observed after nasal honey spray application …”

“…Only five of the 36 included trials were assessed as being at overall low risk of bias . Eleven were assessed as being at unclear risk of bias, and all remaining studies were assessed as being at overall high risk of bias. Details on quality assessment are presented in Fig.…”