A form of light treatment called rhinophototherapy is being studied in the United States and may one day provide patients with allergic rhinitis and other diseases of the upper airway, such as nasal polyposis, with an alternative to standard therapies.
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March 2007The technology is being developed at Allux Medical in Menlo Park, Calif., to treat hyper-reactive airway mucosa. According to company president and CEO Erica Rogers, the first application of rhinophototherapy may be for allergic rhinitis, although the technology has not yet been approved by the Food and Drug Administration and no therapeutic devices are currently available in the United States.
The experts interviewed for this article agreed that although the technology is intriguing, further research is needed to establish long-term efficacy and safety.