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Observational Study
. 2025 Apr;282(4):1963-1970.
doi: 10.1007/s00405-025-09266-3. Epub 2025 Feb 20.

Efficacy of hypertonic nasal spray with algae in rhinosinusitis

Zeynel Öztürk  1 , Nuray Bayar Muluk  2   3 , Rahime Koca  4 , Necdet Özçelіk  5 , Elvin Alaskarov  5 , İbrahim Çukurova  6 , Erdem Atalay Çetіnkaya  4 , Özgür Yörük  7 , Cengiz Bal  8 , Arzu Tatar  7 , Nihat Susaman  9 , Nagehan Dilşad Erdoğmuş Küçükcan  10 , Ayten Güner Atayoğlu  11 , Enes Güngör  12 , Burak Mustafa Taş  13 , Cemal Cingi  12
Affiliations
Observational Study

Efficacy of hypertonic nasal spray with algae in rhinosinusitis

Zeynel Öztürk et al. Eur Arch Otorhinolaryngol. 2025 Apr.

Abstract

Objectives: We aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of nasal irrigation sprays at treating rhinosinusitis by easing congestion in the nose and other symptoms.

Methods: A total of 1700 individuals diagnosed with rhinosinusitis were assigned to the following groups: One group used Sinomarin® hypertonic nasal spray (n = 600), another used Sinomarin® Plus Algae ENT hypertonic nasal spray (n = 600), and a third used an isotonic saline nasal spray (n = 500). Before and after therapy, patients had their symptoms and turbinates examined, overall symptoms scored, and quality of life (QoL) evaluated.

Results: The findings showed that both groups saw a decrease in symptom scores for anterior discharge, postnasal drip, headache, and obstruction with therapy, as well as an improvement in turbinate color and edema (p < 0.05). Quality of life (QoL) ratings rose, and total symptom scores fell during therapy. The group that used hypertonic nasal spray with algae had considerably fewer overall symptom scores than the other groups (hypertonic nasal spray and saline). The hypertonic nasal spray group reported substantially fewer symptoms than the saline group. For what concerns quality of life, the saline group had significantly worse scores than groups 1 and 2; groups 1 and 2 were similar to one another.

Conclusion: We found that compared to hypertonic and saline nasal sprays, the algae-containing hypertonic spray reduced total symptom scores more than the other sprays. This indicated that irrigation based on algae-containing hypertonic nasal sprays could be the treatment of choice for the management of symptoms in rhinosinusitis patients.

Clinical trial number: The study was registered to ClinicalTrials.gov Protocol Registration and Results System (PRS) with a Clinical trial number of E-95961207-202.3.02-2955.

Keywords: Algae-containing hypertonic nasal spray; Hypertonic nasal spray; Isotonic saline nasal spray; Quality of life scores (QoL); Rhinosinusitis; Total symptom scores.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declarations. Ethical approval: Initially, ethical approval was obtained from Istanbul Medipol University, Traditional and Complementary Medicine Applications Ethics Committee, file number 08, on 27 March 2024. The approval application was made to the Ministry of Health General Directorate of Health Services Traditional and Complementary Medicine Applications on 23 July 2024, with application number 249334156. Consent for publication: All authors give consent for publication. Informed consent: Verbal consent was obtained from the patients. Conflict of interest: The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest.

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