The Efficacy of Yogic Breathing Exercise Bhramari Pranayama in Relieving Symptoms of Chronic Rhinosinusitis.

INTRODUCTION

A multitude of modalities are available for the treatment of chronic rhinosinusitis, however, each has its side effects and compliance issues. Bhramari pranayama, which is a breathing exercise in the practice of yoga, offers an inexpensive and free from side effect modality in this regard.

OBJECTIVE

The objective of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of Bhramari pranayama in relieving the symptoms of chronic sinusitis.

METHODOLOGY: A total of 60 patients with chronic sinusitis were randomly divided into two groups, one received conventional treatment of chronic sinusitis and the other group was in addition taught to practice yogic breathing exercise Bhramari pranayama. The patients were advised to practice this breathing exercise twice a day and were followed up at 1, 4, and 12 weeks using the Sino-Nasal Outcome Test (SNOT-22 score).

RESULTS

The mean SNOT-22 score in the group following the Bhramari pranayama breathing exercise using the ANOVA test improved from 39.13 ± 9.10 to 24.79 ± 8.31 (P = 0.0002), this improvement was seen by the end of 4 weeks itself and continued until the 12th week of assessment.

CONCLUSION

Integrating regular practice of Bhramari pranayama along with the conventional management of chronic rhinosinusitis is more effective than conventional management alone.