Nasal Polyps
Board Certified Otolaryngologist & Rhinologist located in Century City, Los Angeles, CA
The earliest signs of nasal polyps often seem like a cold or allergies, but if your symptoms don’t improve, you need treatment from Mani H. Zadeh, MD, FACS, to avoid potential sinus complications. As a highly experienced specialist in nasal polyps and sinus conditions, Dr. Zadeh treats the root cause of your polyps, helping to ensure they don’t keep regrowing. To schedule an appointment, use online booking or call the office in the Century City neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, today.
Nasal polyps are soft, non-cancerous growths that develop inside your nose and sinuses. If they get too large or become inflamed and swollen, they block the sinus and interfere with breathing.
Polyps often develop as a result of chronic inflammation. The long-lasting inflammation may arise due to viral or bacterial infections, allergies, or an immune response to a fungus.
Chronic inflammation makes the blood vessels lining your nose and sinus more permeable, allowing excess water to accumulate in the cells. Over time, gravity pulls on the waterlogged tissues, and they turn into polyps. You may have one polyp or several clustered together like grapes on a stem.
Small nasal polyps seldom cause symptoms. As a polyp grows larger, you may experience:
Chronic sinus infections (sinusitis) cause additional symptoms, including sinus and facial pain, aching upper teeth, and a thick nasal discharge.
Your treatment depends on the size of the polyps and your symptoms. Dr. Zadeh typically begins with medications for small polyps. You may need surgery to remove large polyps. However, nasal polyps frequently return if the underlying cause goes untreated.
The treatment options for nasal polyps include:
Steroids reduce inflammation and shrink polyps, making this the preferred treatment for small polyps.
Oral steroids improve your symptoms and reduce the size of polyps. However, you can only take them for a short time, and then your polyps regrow.
If Dr. Zadeh suspects your polyps are caused by allergies, he runs allergy testing to verify your allergens and then starts immunotherapy. Getting a regular series of allergy shots desensitizes your immune system and improves allergy symptoms. Reducing your allergies helps prevent future polyps and slows the growth of existing polyps.
You may need antibiotics or antifungal medications to treat polyps caused by an infection or an immune response to a fungus.
When small polyps don’t improve with medical treatments, or you have large polyps or chronic sinusitis, Dr. Zadeh may recommend endovascular surgery to remove the polyps.
If you struggle with nasal polyp symptoms, call the offices of Mani H. Zadeh, MD, FACS, or request an appointment online today.