DOCTOR FINDS TREATMENT FOR SINUS TROUBLES

If Dr. Richard Martin's method of treating acute sinus infections catches on, more and more patients will be clearing things up at home instead of at the doctor's office.

The Cape Girardeau ear, nose and throat specialist discovered a way to treat acute and chronic sinus infections without the use of needles, drugs or surgery.

It involves a bulb-like tube hooked to a vaccuum that produces enough force to clean out sinuses virtually pain free. The instrument that comes closest to Martin's was made 34 years ago.

"It's not going to keep every patient from having to undergo surgery, but I've found that from one-third to one-half of the cases that come through my office can avoid that method of treatment," Martin said. I already have a few patients who hook up the glass tube to a vacuum at home."

Martin said that one of every 200 people who get colds end up with acute sinus infections. Some 6,000 people in Cape Girardeau County get a cold every year. From that group, 120 will end up with acute infections. Martin has been able to show, through research on 140 patients ages 8-under and 9 and older, that he could keep from 35-60 percent from undergoing surgery or having to deal with a needle.

The method of treatment, called the aspiration/irrigation maneuver (AIM), came to Martin by accident. As a member of the Christian Medical Society, Martin became accustomed to sending outdated instruments donated by American doctors to Jamaica doctors the past five years.

Martin was given a tube that was used in 1931 by a professor who taught at Washington University. "The way this tube was used, I found it didn't work," Martin said. "But I found out, after treating my kids with a similar instrument I later developed, that the procedure could work."

The difference between Martin's method and others is that Martin uses a saline solution and treats patients when they in an upright position instead of lying down."

With the patient in an upright position, warm saline is introduced with a bulb syringe into the less contaminated side of the nose as the patient says "K,K,K."

Martin said the utterance of the letter three times helps shut the nose off to the mouth by movement of the palate.

The instrument that came closest to fitting Martin's needs was developed by H.S. Martin Corp. of Evanston, Ill. There is no relation to Richard Martin and the man who formed the company in Evanston, Ill.

"They stopped making them in 1971 and as far as I know, no more were made after that year," Martin said. So he went about the task of fashioning a streamlined tube that would enable him to perform the AIM maneuver in an effective manner.

He had to find a professor from SIU-Carbondale to make a new tube in order to try the maneuver on his children. "Bill Curtis, who is also a glassblower, was able to make the tube I wanted," Martin said.

Because the patient is in an upright position, the force of gravity helps remove material that has been causing the sinus infection. As the velocity of the saline increases through the more narrow nasal passage, material is evacuated from the sinuses.

"I've found that by using a needle to remove fluid from the sinus cavity, there is so much pain the first time the patient doesn't want it done again," Martin said. "Children don't even want it done to them the first time."

Research conducted to produce a thesis paper on the maneuver showed that Martin's procedure had the same effect as 66 percent of cases in which a needle was used.

"The aspiration/irrigation maneuver was found to be a safe, non-invasive, and painless procedure," Martin said. "It enhances treatment of acute and chronic sinusitis and improves pre-operative status and post-operative recovery."

Martin, who has already applied for a patent on his newly fashioned tube, plans to introduce the treatment during the Cape Girardeau County Area Medical Society seminar Feb. 11 at the Drury Lodge.

The 11 a.m. session is titled Acute and Chronic Sinusitus.

Martin has also submit his thesis on a study of 140 cases of sinusitus for a national conference in Palm Springs, Calif., later in the year.

"It may be accepted and it may not," he said. "All I know for sure is that the proceedure has worked well with my patients. It's the biggest breakthrough for me in the last three years."