Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2024 Mar 11;16(3):e55955.
doi: 10.7759/cureus.55955. eCollection 2024 Mar.

The Correlation Between Vitamin D Deficiency and Chronic Rhinosinusitis: A Systematic Review

Ghaida Nawi A Alharthi  1 , Ali Alzarei  2
Affiliations
Review

The Correlation Between Vitamin D Deficiency and Chronic Rhinosinusitis: A Systematic Review

Ghaida Nawi A Alharthi et al. Cureus. .

Abstract

Chronic rhinosinusitis (CRS) is marked by inflammation of the paranasal sinuses and mucosal lining of the nose. CRS can be classified as CRS with nasal polyps or CRS without polyps. In recent years, there has been increased attention on the immunological role of vitamin D in treating CRS, coupled with the observation of vitamin D deficiency among CRS patients. Vitamin D is acknowledged for its immunomodulatory properties, especially in allergic conditions. Recent studies suggest that individuals with CRS, especially those with CRS with nasal polyps, frequently demonstrate lower than normal levels of vitamin D. We conducted searches across various databases, including PubMed, Web of Science, ScienceDirect, and the Cochrane Library, both electronically and manually, to identify pertinent studies. Studies from 2003 to 2023 were included. Deficiency of vitamin D was considered with levels of vitamin D less than 30 ng/mL, and only original studies were included. Studies including patients taking vitamin D supplementation previously and patients with chronic kidney and liver diseases were excluded. We included nine studies that recruited 1,042 patients in total. More than half of the studies reported the presence of nasal polyps in CRS, and participants from four studies had CRS without nasal polyps. All of the included studies reported a negative correlation between levels of vitamin D and CRS. The majority of the studies depicted quite low levels of vitamin D among CRS patients. The degree of CRS severity as measured by endoscopic and radiological scores is moderately inversely correlated with vitamin D intake. Therefore, it is recommended that the relationship between various serum vitamin D concentrations and the severity of CRS be investigated in detail, along with an understanding of the cellular effects of vitamin D levels on the nasal mucosa.

Keywords: chronic rhinosinusitis; correlation; crs; crswnp; deficiency; vitamin d.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1. Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses flow diagram.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

References

    1. The role of oral vitamin D3 supplementation in the treatment of chronic rhinosinusitis in adults with vitamin D deficiency. Baruah B, Gupta A, Kumar A, Kumar A. J Family Med Prim Care. 2020;9:2877–2879. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Epidemiology of chronic rhinosinusitis: prevalence and risk factors. Sedaghat AR, Kuan EC, Scadding GK. J Allergy Clin Immunol Pract. 2022;10:1395–1403. - PubMed
    1. Adult chronic rhinosinusitis. Bachert C, Marple B, Schlosser RJ, et al. Nat Rev Dis Primers. 2020;6:86. - PubMed
    1. Chronic rhinosinusitis pathogenesis. Stevens WW, Lee RJ, Schleimer RP, Cohen NA. J Allergy Clin Immunol. 2015;136:1442–1453. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Chronic rhinosinusitis: the unrecognized epidemic. Tan BK, Kern RC, Schleimer RP, Schwartz BS. Am J Respir Crit Care Med. 2013;188:1275–1277. - PMC - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources