Nasal polyps are soft growths inside your nasal passages that aren’t cancerous and often cause no problems. But if you’re experiencing symptoms like ongoing pain and congestion, call Vitale Ear, Nose & Throat in Wesley Chapel or Zephyrhills, Florida. The practice’s experienced ENT doctors can assess your nasal polyps and shrink them with medication. They also offer minimally invasive nasal polypectomy to remove troublesome polyps. Call Vitale Ear, Nose & Throat today or book an appointment online for expert treatment of your nasal polyps.
Nasal polyps are growths on the tissue lining your nasal passages or sinuses. These noncancerous growths might be small, cause no problems, and need no treatment. But larger ones can obstruct your sinuses, leading to breathing problems and infections.
Symptoms of nasal polyps include:
If you don’t have a cold or allergies and suffer these symptoms for more than 10 days, you should see your ENT doctor at Vitale Ear, Nose & Throat. Without treatment, nasal polyps can cause severe conditions like obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), asthma attacks, blood clots, meningitis, and aneurysms.
It’s not clear what causes nasal polyps. Some people are more likely to develop long-term sinus inflammation (chronic sinusitis), increasing the risk of nasal polyps. There could be links to allergies, asthma, and other immune system disorders.
Your doctor diagnoses polyps after examining your nose and discussing your symptoms. Diagnostic tests you might need to evaluate your nasal polyps include nasal endoscopy, a CT scan, or MRI. These procedures help pinpoint where and how big your nasal polyps are. Allergy tests can determine if your polyps are due to an allergy.
If you have nasal polyps and they’re not causing symptoms, you might not need any treatment. If the polyps are causing problems, your doctor can prescribe medication to relieve the inflammation and treat any underlying condition. These should shrink the polyps to a manageable size or make them disappear.
Medications you might need to take for nasal polyps include:
A corticosteroid nasal spray is usually the first treatment your doctor at Vitale Ear, Nose & Throat will prescribe for nasal polyps. If it doesn’t help, they could move you to oral or injectable corticosteroids.
Dupilumab injections treat nasal polyps and chronic sinusitis at the same time.
Antihistamines are allergy pills or nasal sprays that reduce inflammation and irritation.
You might need antibiotics if you have a bacterial sinus infection.
If medications don’t shrink or remove your nasal polyps, you might need an outpatient polypectomy or endoscopic surgery to remove the polyps.
Call Vitale Ear, Nose & Throat today or book an appointment online to arrange an evaluation of your troublesome nasal polyps.