Topically administered hyaluronic acid in the upper airway

Topically administered hyaluronic acid in the upper airway: A narrative review.

Article specifications

This review study was published in 2018 in Journal of Int J Immunopathol Pharmacol. (IF 2015:1.38) by Italian specialists. This article describes the use of topically administered hyaluronic acid in patients with otolaryngological disorders. Pertinent studies published between January 2000 and October 2016 were selected by means of a MEDLINE search using the following terms: 'hyaluronic acid' and 'otolaryngology', 'otitis', 'pharyngitis', 'tonsillitis', 'rhinitis', 'rhinosinusitis' and 'nose'. Twelve of the 19 initially identified papers were selected, corresponding to 902 patients as a whole.

 

Results

In conclusion, despite there are some evidences that topically administered HA improves the global subjective and clinical status of patients with different upper airway disorders, these findings should be viewed cautiously as they are based on a limited number of studies (including only three involving children), some of which were probably under-powered because of their small patient samples. Therefore, further research should be performed in order to confirm the effectiveness of topical administered HA in such patients, to define the better therapeutic protocols (way of administration and dosage) and to selectively test its effectiveness in the paediatric age.