Background: The nasal cavities and paranasal sinuses are the first part of the airways, and normal nasal breathing requires a patent nasal airway. Nasal airway resistance accounts for more than 50% of total airway resistance. Complaint of a blocked nose is often a complex clinical problem involving mucosal, structural and even psychological factors. Objective: To analyse the nasal airflow and resistance in cases of nasal sinus diseases having nasal obstruction before endoscopic sinus surgery by active anterior rhinomanometry. Methods: The present prospective study was done in Department of ENT, Dr. BRAM Hospital & Pt. J.N.M. Medical College, Raipur (C.G.) from January 2009 to November 2010. The study was conducted on Patients suffering from Nasal Polyposis with or without chronic sinusitis. Results: Out of total 55 patients of Chronic rhinosinusitis and Polyposis 34(61.9%) cases were male and 21(38.1) cases were female. Nasal obstruction and discharge was most common presenting symptom in all cases followed by postnasal drip (40%), headache (38.2%), hyposmia (36.4%) and mouth breathing (30.9%). Most common finding in nasal endoscopy were, mass/polyp in nasal cavity (100%), blocked osteomeatal complex (100%) followed by discharge (92.7%) and synechiae (9%). Statistically significant improvement was seen in post operative mean values of right (442.0 cm3/sec) and left (399.0 cm3/sec) nasal airflow as compared to pre operative mean values of right (176.4 cm3/sec) and left (350.7 cm3/sec) nasal airflow of right antrochoanal polyp patients. Conclusion: The most common nasal polyp found was right antrochoanal polyp followed by ethmoidal polyp and least common left antrochoanal polyp. Duration of symptom ranged from 6 months to more than 2 years. Nasal obstruction and rhinorrhea are the commonest symptoms of presentation. Active Anterior Rhinomanometry is a sensitive but not a specific tool for detection of Nasal air way resistance.
