May Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy Play a Role in the Treatment of Allergic Rhinitis? A Double- Blind Experimental Study in Rat Model Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy on AllergicRhinitis

Objectives: Medical treatments may be inadequate for the management of allergic rhinitis. Therefore, it requires different treatment options. We aimed to evaluate the effects of nasal steroid and hyperbaric oxygen (HBO) treatments on the nasal mucosa of an allergic rhinitis of a (AR) rat model. Methods: Group 1 (control group); Group 2 toluene diisocyanate (TDI) group; Group 3 was exposed to TDI and treated with HBO; Group 4 was exposed to TDI and treated with intranasalmometasone furoate. After the sacrification, the sections were then evaluated semi-quantitatively and parameters of histopathological inflammation, fibrosis and eosinophilia were assessed. Results: The level of inflammation in the control group was significantly less severe than Group 2. There were statistically significant differences between Groups 2, 3 and 4. Evaluation of thefibrosis scores showed that the scores of Group 4 were significantly higher. Group 1 has significantly lower eosinophil counts than the other groups. Group 2 has significantly higher eosinophil counts than group 4. Conclusion: Anti-inflammatory effects of both nasal steroid and HBO treatments were found to be similar in our study. Nasal steroid therapy combined with HBO therapy may be used on treatmentresistant patients with persistent AR.