Nasal polyp

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.

Causes

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.

Symptoms

Nasal polyps are associated with inflammation of the lining of your nasal passages and sinuses that lasts more than 12 weeks (chronic rhinosinusitis, also known as chronic sinusitis). However, it's possible — and even somewhat more likely — to have chronic sinusitis without nasal polyps.

Nasal polyps themselves are soft and lack sensation, so if they're small you may not be aware you have them. Multiple or large polyps may block your nasal passages and sinuses.

Common signs and symptoms of chronic sinusitis with nasal polyps include:

• A runny nose
• Persistent stuffiness
• Postnasal drip
• Decreased or absent sense of smell
• Loss of sense of taste
• Facial pain or headache
• Pain in your upper teeth
• A sense of pressure over your forehead and face
• Snoring
• Frequent nosebleeds

Treatment

Treatment for nasal polyps usually involves medication to reduce the size of the polyp or eliminate it. Medications used to treat nasal polyps include:

• Nasal corticosteroids
• Injectable or oral corticosteroids
• Other medications

If drug treatment doesn't shrink or eliminate nasal polyps, you may need endoscopic surgery to remove polyps and to correct problems with your sinuses that make them prone to inflammation and the development of polyps.

See Also

• Asthma
• Allergies
• Chronic Sinusitis

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