Saline nasal irrigation (SNI) is recommended as an adjunctive treatment in allergic rhinitis: a systematic review and meta-analysis.
SNI using isotonic solution is recommended as complementary therapy in Allergic rhinitis (AR). It is well tolerated, inexpensive, easy to use, and there is no evidence showing that regular, daily SNI adversely affects the patient's health or causes unexpected side effects.
It was conducted a systematic search from different main databases (Medline, Embase, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, ISI Web of Science databases) for literature published from 1994 to 2010 of prospective, randomized, controlled trials that assessed the effects of SNI on different outcome parameters - primary (symptom score) and secondary parameters (medicine consumption, mucociliary clearance, and quality of life).
Results: SNI performed regularly over a limited period of up to 7 weeks was observed to have a positive effect on all investigated outcome parameters in adults and children with AR. SNI produced a 27.66% improvement in nasal symptoms, a 62.1% reduction in medicine consumption, a 31.19% acceleration of mucociliary clearance time, and a 27.88% improvement in quality of life.