"These stents are beneficial for those cases because it can hold the
area open after surgery while releasing steroids to reduce inflamma-
tion and decrease scarring."
Though surgeons say the stents can help with inflammation and
improving patient outcomes, Dr. Wolf says that insurance reimburse-
ment continues to be an issue. He notes that in order to use the drug-
eluting stents, often facilities will have to pay for the stent on their
own and bill patients for it, or physicians can write a prescription for
the patient to pick up the stent at a pharmacy and bring it into the
facility on the day of the procedure. "It's certainly more attractive for
the patient to not have to be hands on with it, especially since it usual-
ly requires the patient to go to a special pharmacy to pick it up," says
Dr. Wolf. "However, sometimes it's impossible to get insurance to pay
for it, and there's no other way around it."
In addition to stents placed after sinus surgery, a new implant
approved in December 2017 promises to help prevent surgery in the
first place. The company of the stent says it elutes a steroid over a
longer period of time, which is more powerful than others on the mar-
ket. While most stents are 6 weeks, the latest stent can be left in for
90 days. The manufacturer says the stent may be an alternative to sur-
gery and other treatment options for adults who have already had eth-
moid sinus surgery.
Though these innovations are helping with sinus surgery today, the
physicians note that medical advances are improving the way physi-
cians treat chronic sinusitis — and there may come a time where
medical treatments can cure the disease once and for all.
OSM
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