ABSTRACT
Objective To observe the long-term efficacy of nasal endoscopy-guided high intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU ) in the treatment of allergic rhinitis .Methods 300 patients with allergic rhinitis who failed in medication were randomly divided into the treatment group(n=162) and the control group(n=138) .The patients in the treatment group were accepted the nasal endosco-py-guided HIFU therapy ,while the patients in the control group were subjected to the hypothermy plasma ablation .The two groups were followed up after operation ,and the visual analogue scale(VAS) was employed to evaluate the therapeutic efficacy at postoper-ative 3 ,6 ,12 ,24 months .The saccharin tests were performed at the beginning and ending of treatment to assess the nasal mucocili-ary function in the patients of the two groups who voluntarily accepted the functional test of nasal cilia .Results After 2-week treat-ment ,nasal congestion ,sneezing ,runny nose ,nasal itching and other symptoms in the two groups were significantly relieved with no obvious complication .2-year follow-up demonstrated that the total effective rate in the treatment group was 61 .4% ,which was markedly higher than 50 .7% in the control group(P=0 .017) .The average saccharin clearance time of the treatment group (n=49) and the control group(n=39) were(464 ± 152)s and(738 ± 149)s ,respectively ,and their difference was statistical significant (P=0 .026) .Conclusion The long-term efficacy of HIFU treatment in allergic rhinitis is superior to that of hypothermy plasma abla-tion ,possesses less impacts on the nasal mucociliary function ,and is worthy of clinical promotion .