Abstract:
Objective: To determine the risk factors associated with sino-nasal polyposis and its relationship with the exposure of
occupational inhalants in patients presenting in a tertiary care hospital of Karachi.
Study design and Settings: Cross-sectional study conducted at department of otorhino-laryngology Karachi Medical &
Dental College and Abbasi Shaheed Hospital Karachi for a period of two and a half years from October 2015 to April 2018.
Methodology: Total number of patients included for this study were 221 patients with diagnosis of bilateral and multiple
nasal polyposis with age greater than 10 years. Specifically, designed proforma was used for data collection specially in
relation with occupation and exposure to different occupational inhalants and entered in SPSS version 23 for analysis.
Results: There were 133 male and 88 female patient with a mean age was 36.16 ± 12.33 years. Mostly patients belonged
to poor socio-economic status i.e. 133 (60.70%). Allergic rhinitis or nasal allergy was the most common risk factor present
in 114 patients (51.6%) while aspirin hypersensitivity was the least common risk factor present in only 19 patients (8.5%).
Most of the patients (76 or 34.4%) were related with one or the other form of agriculture and were exposed to different
occupational inhalants like mud, pollens, animals and plants.
Conclusions: Nasal allergy is the most common risk factor and occupational inhalant specially related with agriculture,
poultry and pets are the common agents responsible for nasal polyposis in our local population.