Saturday, 16 April 2016

Nasal polyps are soft, painless, noncancerous growths on the lining of your nasal passages or sinuses

Nasal polyps are soft, painless, noncancerous growths on the lining of your nasal passages or sinuses. They hang down like teardrops or grapes. They result from chronic inflammation due to asthma, recurring infection, allergies, drug sensitivity or certain immune disorders. Small nasal polyps may not cause symptoms. Larger growths or groups of nasal polyps can block your nasal passages or lead to breathing problems, a lost sense of smell, and frequent infections.

Nasal polyps can affect anyone, but they're more common in adults. Medications can often shrink or eliminate nasal polyps, but surgery is sometimes needed to remove them. Even after successful treatment, nasal polyps often return. With surgical treatment, most symptoms get significantly better. However, if you’ve lost some sense of smell, it may never return. Even with surgery, nasal polyps may regrow in up to 15 percent of patients with a chronic nasal problem.

A nasal polyp is a small, typically benign, teardrop-shaped growth on the lining of the sinus cavity or nasal passages. You might also picture them as small, peeled grapes. They appear as a result of several different issues, including: prolonged swelling of the nasal tissues, chronic sinusitis, allergies, asthma or as a side effect of certain drugs. Nasal polyps vary in size. Smaller growths are often unnoticeable because they present no symptoms. More sizeable polyps, on the other hand, can cause great discomfort, since they can block the sinus passages, affecting your ability to breathe and predisposing you to acute or chronic sinusitis.

Nasal polyps often appear after a sinus infection that lasts for an extended period of time – typically 12 weeks or greater, although you need not always suffer a sinus infection in order to contract nasal polyps. Sometimes they are the result of genetics. People of all ages are at risk of contracting nasal polyps, although medical researchers report that the most frequently affected populations are the young and middle-aged.

No comments:

Post a Comment