‘Research is being carried out to find a vaccine to cure sinus’

EHM News Bureau - Mumbai

Around 50 to 60 per cent Indians suffer from polyps at some point in their life and we need modern techniques like endoscopic approach to pituitary, optic nerve decompression, orbital decompression, mini frontal trephine, vidian neurectomy, endoscopic septoplasty, endoscopic turbinoplasty and endoscopic medial maxillectomy to treat them without complexity, said ENT surgeon and neuro-otologist of Jaslok Hospital, Dr Dillon D’Souza.

Dr D’Souza was speaking during the 4th workshop and symposium on Advanced Endoscopic Sinus Surgery organised by Jaslok Hospital recently. The first line of treatment for polyp is steroids and antibiotics, but when they fail, surgery is recommended.

Said Dr Christopher Lobo, consultant otolarygonologist at Royal Bolton Hospital, UK, “Worldwide research is currently on for vaccination to cure sinus. It might take some 10 to 15 years for the research to be out.”

Speaking to Express Healthcare Management, Professor P J Wormald from Australia spoke on his research programme that has successfully developed the sheep as an animal model to research various aspects of nasal disease and surgery.

“The sheep develops an eosinophilic rhinosinusitis with an infestation with oestrus ovi parasite that closely approximates the eosinophlic rhinosinusitis seen in patients, allowing research into how the eosinophils interact with the nasal mucosa and how they cause disease,” he says.

The conference was inaugurated by the trustee of Jaslok Hospital Kanta Masand and was attended by over 100 delegates.