/thoughts on irrigation

February 16, 2006

, I definitely respect your opinions, and I do not think there

is one right way to do the irrigation.

However, the benefits of the Water Pik or Grossan irrigators are

supposed to be not just the mechanical projection of the fluid

through the nose, but the pulsatile mechanism that is provided. It

is not a sustained pressure, as your surgeon says. It is

pulsatile.

I am still not 100 percent sure that it cannot push infection up.

However, what your surgeon says seems contradictory to me. He/she

says that the reach of the machines is limited, but yet it might be

pushing the infection further up. If the machines are limited in

their ability to reach far up into the sinuses, then is there a true

danger in pushing the infection up?

What pulsatile irrigation is supposed to do is to help the cilia to

work properly, which should help nasal/sinus health overall, whether

or not you actually reach all the sinuses to clear them out (which

of course is impossible).

I am erring on the side of caution. Some literature I have been

reading about the different products (both the rinses and the

machines) really cautions against the use in blocked nostrils or if

you have any ear pressure, and I have had both. So I am not

blocking off EITHER nostril with the irrigation tip when I do it.

Here are some references on pulsatile irrigation and why it may be

more beneficial. Admittedly, a great bulk of the literature in this

area seems to be by Dr. Grossan, who would have a strong financial

interest in the promotion of pulsatile irrigation. However, he is

not the only one who has studied it. And even in the book The Sinus

Cure which Grossan edited, they mention the Water Pik, not only the

Grossan irrigator (I'm not even sure if the Grossan one is mentioned

at all).

Anyway just a few more thoughts on this subject! Any irrigation has

got to be better than none, that's for sure!

Lori

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