Cryoablation Emerges Promising Treatment for Chronic Rhinitis: Systematic Review Reveals Potential Benefits
Canada: Chronic rhinitis, a persistent inflammation of the nasal passages, affects millions worldwide, causing significant discomfort and impairing quality of life. However, a recent systematic review has shed light on a potentially groundbreaking treatment option: cryoablation. This minimally invasive procedure involves freezing the nerves responsible for rhinitis symptoms, offering hope for those who have struggled to find relief through traditional therapies.
ClariFix is a novel intranasal cryotherapy device introduced in Canada in 2021. The study, published in the Journal of Otolaryngology-Head & Neck Surgery, is the first systematic review evaluating its efficacy and safety profile.
The review revealed a significant reduction in validated outcome scores at multiple time intervals across all studies. Further, the treatment was safe, with only minor adverse effects reported by patients. Overall, the consensus from this study showed an apparent benefit in using this intervention for chronic rhinitis that is refractory to medical management.
ClariFix is a novel intranasal cryotherapy device developed for clinic-based cryosurgical posterior nasal nerve region ablation. As a relatively new technology, there is a lack of studies within the literature evaluating the safety and efficacy profile of ClariFix for chronic rhinitis.
To fill this knowledge gap, Veeral Desai from the Faculty of Medicine at the Queen's University in Kingston, ON, Canada, and colleagues aimed to assess the adverse outcomes and efficacy of ClariFix use by pooling existing data, thereby increasing the sample size.
For this purpose, the researchers completed a systematic review according to the PRISMA guidelines. Databases searched included Ovid EMBASE, Ovid Medline, Web of Science, Cochrane, and Pubmed. Inclusion criteria comprised studies examining ClariFix use in chronic rhinitis (i.e., allergic and non-allergic rhinitis) in patients of all ages.
The initial search identified 1110 studies. The final analysis comprised eight articles, evaluating 472 patients.
Following were the key findings of the study:
- There was a significant reduction in scores post-treatment across all studies based on validated outcome measures.
- In all studies, at all time intervals, there was a significant improvement in outcome scores from baseline.
- Minor adverse effects included post-procedural pain, and discomfort, headache, and palate numbness.
- No major adverse events were identified.
In conclusion, the systematic review demonstrates that ClariFix is a safe and effective treatment modality for chronic rhinitis. Clinically meaningful reductions in nasal symptoms were observed using validated outcome metrics across studies, which appears to be sustained. In any of the studies, no serious adverse events were reported. The most common adverse effect reported was post-procedural discomfort or pain.
"There is a need for further studies, including randomized controlled studies to make a meta-analysis of the efficacy of ClariFix possible," the researchers wrote.
Reference:
Desai, V., Sampieri, G., Namavarian, A., & Lee, J. M. (2023). Cryoablation for the treatment of chronic rhinitis: A systematic review. Journal of Otolaryngology - Head & Neck Surgery. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40463-023-00645-6
