The Beneficial Effects of Hydrogen-Rich Saline Irrigation on Chronic Rhinitis: A Randomized, Double-Blind Clinical Trial

Ling Jin; Kai Fan; Shiwang Tan; Shangxi Liu; Qin Ge; Yang Wang; Zisheng Ai; Shaoqing Yu

doi:10.2147/JIR.S365611

The Beneficial Effects of Hydrogen-Rich Saline Irrigation on Chronic Rhinitis: A Randomized, Double-Blind Clinical Trial

J Inflamm Res. 2022 Jul 15:15:3983-3995. doi: 10.2147/JIR.S365611. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Ling Jin^#¹, Kai Fan^#¹, Shiwang Tan¹, Shangxi Liu¹, Qin Ge¹, Yang Wang¹, Zisheng Ai², Shaoqing Yu¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Otolaryngology, Tongji Hospital, School of Medicine, Tongji University, Shanghai, 200065, People's Republic of China.
² Department of Medical Statistics, School of Medicine, Tongji University, Shanghai, 200331, People's Republic of China.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

Purpose: Chronic rhinitis (CR) is a common chronic inflammation of the nasal mucosa. Nasal saline irrigation has been demonstrated to be an effective treatment for CR. In this study, we investigated the beneficial effects of hydrogen-rich saline irrigation as an anti-inflammatory irrigation therapy for CR and compared its effectiveness over saline irrigation. Hydrogen-rich saline (HRS) was investigated due to its antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties.

Methods: A total of 120 patients with CR were randomly divided into two groups, patients irrigated with HR (HRS group) and the control group irrigated with saline (NS group). A randomized, double-blind control study was performed. The main observation index in this study was the total score of nasal symptoms (TNSS). In addition, eosinophilic protein (ECP) of the nasal secretions, nasal nitric oxide (nNO) levels, and levels of regulatory T cells (Treg) and regulatory B cells (Breg) were also compared between the two groups. Furthermore, patients with allergic rhinitis (AR) and non-allergic rhinitis (NAR) were also evaluated based on serum-specific IgE positivity.

Results: After treatment, TNSS and nasal ECP in the two groups decreased significantly (P<0.05), with patients in the HRS group showing significantly lower levels compared to the NS group (P<0.05). There were no significant differences in Treg and Breg levels between the two groups. Subgroup analysis showed that TNSS in the AR-HRS group showed a more significant reduction compared to the AR-NS group (P<0.05); however, there were no significant differences for the other inflammatory biomarkers (P>0.05). ECP levels were reduced significantly in the NAR subgroup compared to NS irrigation (P<0.05). There were no obvious adverse events observed in patients during the entire treatment period.

Conclusion: Compared to saline irrigation, HRS nasal irrigation was found to improve CR clinical symptoms, especially in patients with AR. HRS could effectively be used for the clinical treatment of patients with CR.

Keywords: allergic rhinitis; chronic rhinitis; hydrogen-rich; nasal irrigation; non-allergic rhinitis.

Publication types

Case Reports
Clinical Trial

Grants and funding

This work was supported by the National Science Foundation of China (No.81873689), Clinical Research Plan of SHDC (No. SHDC2020CR4090), Clinical Science and Technology Innovation Project of SHDC (No. SHDC12019X07), Health Commission Advanced Technology Promotion Project of Shanghai City (No.2019SY071), Clinical Research Project of Tongji Hospital of Tongji University (Grant No.ITJ(ZD)1801), Clinical Research Program of Shanghai Municipal Health Commission ((No.202140293).