In reviewing the literature of the past three or four years on asthma, one of the outstanding facts is the swing of opinion back to the acceptance of the nose and nasal accessory sinuses as a contributing factor, if not the seat of the nervous reflex that causes the spasms called asthma.
In 1872, Voltolini1 published a report of eleven cases of asthma with nasal polypi in which the patients were relieved by removal of the polypi. This experience has been repeated many times since Voltolini's report was made. I venture to say that every rhinologist has had that happy experience, and the question naturally arises, why can it not be repeated? For a time, beginning about thirty years ago, many rhinologists thought that all asthmas were secondary to some condition in the nose: polypi, hypertrophied turbinates, deviated septum, spurs, etc. This led to much unnecessary surgical intervention,