Propel Stent vs Kenalog-soaked Nasopore After Frontal Drill-out

Overview

Surgery on the frontal sinus is done for patients who have sinus problems that do not respond to medications. It involves making an opening within the right and left frontal sinus of the nose to help it drain. For severe frontal sinus disease, the sinus is widely opened and the left and right sinuses become one large sinus. This is done with sharp instruments and rigid endoscopes placed through the nostrils. While the sinus heals after surgery, a stent or steroids or both may be used to try to help make sure that the opening does not close back up. Two current options for this are Propel stents and steroid-soaked Nasopore. Propel stents are FDA-approved. Nasopore and Kenalog injection are both FDA-approved, but their use together is part of the study and not specifically FDA-approved. A previous study shows that Propel stents are useful to reduce scarring in other frontal sinus procedures. We would like to know whether this is true in larger frontal sinus surgery where one common cavity is made and whether both steroid-containing stents are the same.

Endoscopic sinus surgery is commonly used to manage chronic inflammatory frontal sinus disease that is not adequately controlled with medical therapy alone. In recalcitrant cases, a more extensive procedure called the modified endoscopic Lothrop procedure or frontal drill-out (FDO) procedure is often performed. The frontal drill-out procedure is performed endoscopically and its goal is to create one large common cavity between the left and right frontal sinuses and nasal cavities to allow adequate drainage and communication for subsequent drug delivery through sinonasal irrigations if indicated. Failure of this procedure is most commonly the results of re-stenosis of the outflow tract due to scarring, adhesions, or progressive disease such as polyposis. One meta analysis assessing the long-term complications of frontal drillouts reported an overall failure rate to be 13.9%, defined as those individuals needing further surgery. Another clinical trial reported a failure rate for a 200-person study to be 30%. Placing a steroid-eluding biodegradable stent into the sinonasal cavities after surgery is thought to reduce the occurrence of re-stenosis, both by physically stenting the opening and by treating resultant inflammation with corticosteroid. Propel stents are made of synthetic dissolvable polymer that contains a corticosteroid (mometasone furoate) and has been FDA-approved to stent and reduce inflammation over 30 days. Similarly, Nasopore is an FDA-approved fragmentable nasal dressing that is used as a stent. Kenalog soaking the Nasopore is thought to act as the functional equivalent of the mometasone furoate found in the Propel stent, but this use is investigational. The effect of stenting and its consequences on the outcomes of FDO specifically has also not been well studied.Recent randomized-controlled trial of Propel stent placement after frontal sinusotomy (a less extensive form of frontal sinus surgery compared to FDO procedure) showed improvement in outcomes compared to no stent placement and no major complications.There are no known randomized-controlled trials to date of propel stent placement or Nasopore-soaked Kenalog placement after FDO procedure. We wish, therefore, to perform a randomized trial to compare the efficacy and outcomes of Nasopore-soaked kenalog versus propel stenting.