1999 Volume 38 Issue 1 Pages 15-19
Since 1986, our allergic rhinitis treatment method has been chemosurgery with application of 80w/v% trichloroacetic acid (TCA) to the bilateral inferior turbinates under topical anesthesia. We have previously reported our satisfactory clinical results. In this paper, we evaluated the treatment's effectiveness and usefulness by investigating eosinophils that were classified activated cells (EG2) and non-activated cells (EG1), and Eg2 was obtained from the nasal smears of the same subjects, and mast cells which were classified tryptase-positive, chymase-negative cells (MCT) and tryptase-positive, chymase-positive cells (MCTC) infiltration by counting the number of cells stained using immunohistochemical methods. The subjects were patients who gave their consent to have only one side of the inferior turbinate treated with TCA because of their deviated nasal septa that were treatment hindrances. Clinically the patients showed no improvement in their conditions, therefore, they underwent reconstructive septal surgery combined with bilateral turbinectomy. We compared the number of EG2 and EG1, and MCT and MCTC of the treated and non-treated sides. The number of EG2 and EG1 were significantly less in the treated side, and the Eg2 in nasal smears showed the same results. In addition, the number of MCT and MCTC were significantly less in the treated side. These results indicate that effective treatment of nasal allergies with TCA chemosurgery has been obtained by suppression of EG2 infiltration which is mobilized by cytokines, and by suppression of MCT infiltration which is a major cause of reagin dependent allergy.
