I recently have had several contacts with Mr. Chris Martin. Chris is one of the driving forces behind the ENS Symposium. ENS stands for “Empty Nose Syndrome", a condition suffered by patients who have had their turbinates totally or partially removed during sinus surgery. This is a practice that was once considered harmless, but in recent years it has proven to be very harmful indeed. For those not familiar with the term pulsatile irrigation, it refers to nasal irrigation done by a small appliance that sends pulses of saline solution into one nostril, and the solution exits from the other nostril. The procedure is repeated in the opposite nasal passage as well. Pulsatile irrigation was pioneered by Dr. Murray Grossan. It cleans out the nasal and sinus cavities and also gets the cilia in the nose moving and working.



Chris Martin will publish a book in the June time frame about his experiences with ENS. As an ENS sufferer for over six years, Chris did not find many resources available to help him in dealing with his condition, so he has authored his book to help others. Information about how to find the book will be available at a later date at www.postnasaldrip.net and at the web site of the ENS Symposium, emptynosesyndrome.org.

Chris wrote me recently and touched on several sinus related topics, including pulsatile irrigation, and I subsequently responded. There are a number of interesting points for sinus sufferers in our exchange below. In his comments Chris is referring to a report entitled “Sinus Treatment Success Stories" which we provided to him.

Chris: “Thanks, Walt, for the e-book and article. I enjoyed reading the success stories and will read the 'bad breath' book soon. I just want to add some comments on what I read re: treatment success stories. I notice a recurring theme in many of these articles is how pulsatile irrigation helps, which is certainly true in the case of ENS as well. In fact, one of the premises in my book on ENS is that treatments that work for sinusitis also are very helpful for ENS, and vice-versa. I think there is a lot of universality in sinus treatments that really work, although it seems these ideas are not well understood. Having ENS, in some respects, it seems I have had to become my own doctor. Now, back to pulsatile irrigation...what irks me is that in my own experiences most ear, nose and throat doctors do not recommend using pulsatile irrigation to help improve their sinuses. It took me six years of suffering from empty nose before recognizing how much this treatment could and has helped me. That's a shame. On the bright side, sinus rinsing seems to have become much better recognized in recent years; just notice the number of saline products in any drugstore. I realize the doctors will not make a lot of money off it, but think of how much prevention can save us financially, emotionally, and health-wise in the long run. An ounce of prevention is certainly worth a pound of cure. I wish saline irrigation was tantamount to washing our hands!