A consortium of 25 allergists and otorhinolaryngologists from five medical specialty societies in the United States has developed a guideline for designing clinical trials in the treatment of chronic rhinosinusitis.
Although the condition affects 30 million people nationwide, there has historically been a lack of consensus regarding its definition, and consensus is still lacking regarding standards of care for it. Therefore, according to the members of the consortium who produced the guidelines, a consensus regarding the design of clinical trials is an important next step to standardizing care.
The new guideline, Rhinosinusitis: Developing Guidance for Clinical Trials, consists of specific recommendations for such trials, and was published in November 2006 in both a supplement of the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology (JACI) and Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery (OTO-HNS).1,2 These are the official publications, respectively, of the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma, and Immunology (AAAAI) and the American Academy of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery (AAO-HNS). The other participating societies in the consortium are the American Academy of Otolaryngic Allergy (AAOA), the American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology (ACAAI), and the American Rhinologic Society (ARS). This is the group’s second collaboration. The first document was published in December 2004, also concurrently JACI and OTO-HNS.