How the Hydro-Pulse® was Invented

Before Antibiotics
Before there were antibiotics, treating sinusitis meant office visits with treatments that could be unpleasant, such as flushing the sinus using instruments.

Then when antibiotics came along, now there was a simple pill for whatever sinus area bothered you. Patients were very happy.

However, there were still pregnant patients for whom administering antibiotics, particularly the new ones, was problematic.
The Hydro Pulse® was originally developed for these pregnant patients as an easy way to avoid systemic or inhaled antibiotics, to protect the fetus. Today, with increasing antibiotic resistance, this works for everyone to prevent sinusitis, as well as to clear it. This is the story of how it was developed.

Cedars Sinai Hospital Los Angeles
I happen to practice in a location – Cedars Sinai, Los Angeles where there are dozens of fine obstetricians that refer their sinus patients to my office of five ENT specialists, Tower ENT Usually these suffering mothers-to-be came with a note to avoid antibiotics.
Fortunately I was aware of how normal nasal cilia sweep bacteria and offenders out of the nose, down the throat, where they are inactivated by stomach acid.
It turned out that most of these pregnant women had poor nasal cilia function; those with attendant cough also had slow chest cilia.

Measure Nasal Cilia
You can measure nasal cilia by placing a particle of saccharin into the nose just behind the entrance. Then you time how long before they taste the sweet taste on the tongue. That’s how long it takes for the nasal cilia to move the saccharin out of the nose and down the throat to where the tongue can taste it. I may color the saccharin so I can see it as well.
In the normal nose, patients taste the sweet taste in 5 to 8 minutes. A time of 9 to 18 minutes is considered possible sinus disease, and if the patient doesn’t taste the saccharine in 19 minutes or longer, sinus disease is probably present and the patient needs therapy for their lack of good cilia movement. You can also diagnose Cystic Fibrosis and abnormalities cilia movement.

Treating Slow Nasal Cilia
In health, the nasal cilia move in rhythm to move unwanted invaders out of the nose and sinuses. Therefore you want to speed up the cilia so they can do their job.
Humming at a low “ooommm’ will vibrate the cilia and break up thick mucus bonds that slow rhythmic cilia movement.
Drinking lots of liquids dilutes the bacteria and thins the thick mucus that impairs nasal cilia movement
Tea – green or black, with or without caffeine contains
L –theonine that speeds cilia. Chicken soup is effective as well.
There were various suction and office procedures that could be done to suction out infected material, most of which are considered unpleasant.

When Humming Didn’t Work
When the tea, humming, etc didn’t work, I needed a simple comfortable method for sinusitis in pregnancy. I had observed that yoga instructor Indra Devi remained free of infection by rhythmically sniffing saline in and out of her nose in a rhythm that was harmonious to normal cilia movement.
I knew that Proetz sinus irrigation was effective to removing infected sinus contents and replacing that with saline. This consisted of running saline through the nose from one side to another at a constant rate of flow; this created a suction effect that sucked the infected material out of the sinuses and replaced it with clear saline. However it was necessary to place the child on the mother’s lap, head hyper extended, then fill each nostril with saline on one side and suctioning it out on the other side.
This worked will with screaming kids, but was not a happy experience for the adult, especially one with a sore neck to begin with.

The Hydro Pulse™ Solution
The solution was the Hydro Pulse™. This created a steady flow rate, and, by known laws of physics – the Bernoulli Principle – the constant flow past the sinus openings created a vacuum that pulled infected material out of the sinus cavities. Best of all, it could be performed easily by simply leaning over the sink so that the flow went in one side and out the other. The key was to have a steady flow, and it could be adjusted to a very low pressure so that the pressure couldn’t bother the connection to the ear.
{In irrigation that requires the patient to lean to the side, fluid collects at the side of the nose where the Eustachian opening to the ear is located; here fluid can enter the ear. With the Hydro Pulse™ it works best with the head held midline, facing the sink drain. This insures no fluid into the Eustachian Tube opening into the middle ear.
The rate of pulsation of the Hydro Pulse™ was created to be harmonious with the best flow rate of normal cilia, thereby replacing the necessity of humming.

More Discovery
Needless to say, more than pregnant women profited by this means of draining the sinuses comfortably without harsh drugs.
However, there were stubborn cases among the pregnant patients, and cultures showed the need for certain antibiotics. Because I knew that the saline solution from the Hydro Pulse™ did fill the sinus cavity, why not simply add the medication to the Hydro Pulse solution? That worked well too, and today is a preferred method of administering any antibiotic to the sinuses.

Then came the best discovery of all. Mrs. M. Tyler called: she was due to go into the hospital to deliver her child next week. Did she need to continue irrigation while in the hospital?
She came in for a visit. No, she no longer had any sinus symptoms. I measured her nasal cilia with the saccharin test. It took six minutes to pass from her nose to the tongue where she tasted it. “No, “I told her, “ there is no need to continue to use the Hydro Pulse. ™ Once your nasal cilia have returned to normal, there is no need to be more normal. “

I am grateful to the pregnant patients like Mrs. Tyler who showed me a problem that could be remedied for them, yet has also benefitted so many other patients as well.
This is especially important today, when bacteria are becoming more resistant to antibiotics. Not only can we reduce patients becoming ill so that they need the antibiotics, but we can also treat them with the needed medication via this type of irrigation that only effects the nose and sinuses, and doesn’t go into the body itself, nor is it inhaled into the lungs!
My thanks to Indra Devi, Bernoulli, and so many others that helped create this pleasant solution to sinus problems.