General Medical Information

Polyps

Richard L. Mabry

Isolated antrochoanal polyps usually are caused by infection. Among those that are not, about one third are associated with inhalant allergy. Patients with polyps should at least be screened for allergy. Although pharmacotherapy and immunotherapy may not produce total resolution of manifest polyps among patients with allergies, treatment begun before definitive nasal and sinus surgery and continued afterward appears, at least anecdotally, to make polyp recurrence less likely.