الفهرس 
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Abstract
Summary & Conclusion
Allergic rhinitis is a common condition among general populations.
The primary symptoms are nasal obstruction, sneezing, rhinorrhea and nasal itch. In addition, patients with allergic rhinitis may present with headaches, impaired hearing, postnasal drip, decreased taste and smell, earache and symptoms of sleep apnea.
In this study we aimed to evaluate the role of acupuncture in treatment; of allergic rhinitis.
One hundred and fifty patients with Allergic rhinitis were selected randomly from the ENT outpatient clinic.
In our study, the patients were randomly treated either with acupuncture 50 patients, with placebo (sham acupuncture): 50 patients or with local nasal steroid (Nasonex): 50 patients.
Participants received real or sham acupuncture three times a week with two days interval between sessions for 4 weeks (totally 12 sessions) , 50 patients were treated with local nasal steroid (Nasonex) for 4 weeks where patients were informed to apply the spray two sprays in each nostril once daily for 4 weeks.
Each session lasted 25 minutes all real and sham treatments were performed by the same registered acupuncturist.
We have shown that acupuncture succeeded in treating allergic rhinitis patients.
The success rate was statistically significant (80%) in comparison to placebo (32%), local nasal steroids (70%)
The follow up after 2 months and one year showed that acupuncture prevented recurrence in 48% of patients while local nasal steroids prevented recurrence in (14%) of cases.
We have shown that there was no effect of the age, sex, on the outcome of acupuncture treatment but it is evident that the total nasal symptom score is an important factor in determination of the success rate gained by acupuncture.
In conclusion, Acupuncture could be considered safe and effective method in treatment of allergic rhinitis with good results and improvement in the nasal symptoms of allergic rhinitis (sneezing, nasal blockage and rhinorrhea) thus, preventing the daily troubles resulting from these symptoms and it gives long effect on the symptoms that may lead to prevention of symptoms recurrence for 1 year in high percentage of cases.
Recommendations
According to our results in treating allergic rhinitis, we recommend
the acupuncture to be considered as a method of treatment as it showed high success rate (80%), less recurrence rate, least side effects.
Further larger controlled prospective studies are needed to exactly evaluate the factors affecting the response of patient to acupuncture e.g) age, sex, presence of nasal polyposis, pregnancy, patients with HCV & HBV, other respiratory diseases e.g. asthma, other systemic diseases e.g. DM & HTN) and to follow up the patient for a longer period after acupuncture treatment.
other objective evaluation using serum IgE and esinophils in blood and nasal secretions could be done with the assist of clinical pathologists, to evaluate associated serum and blood changes in response to acupuncture.