The MACRO Programme – A Call for Participants

Sinus surgery and antibiotics are used to treat Chronic Rhinosinusitis (CRS) in routine care, but we do not know which works best. The MACRO trial will help doctors treat patients with CRS better in the future.

 

All participants in the trial receive nasal steroids and saline rinses as standard care, alongside their randomly allocated treatment option of either sinus surgery, antibiotics or placebo tablets. They are followed up for six months to gauge the success of each treatment in terms of improvement of symptoms, quality of life and possible side effects, as well as cost-effectiveness.

 

More details can be found on the trial website www.themacroprogramme.org.uk – Workstream 2 covers the current stage of the trial.

 

People with chronic rhinosinusitis with or without polyps who are interested in participating in the MACRO trial must first be referred by their GPs or ENT specialists to one of the 19 recruiting centres. If you have been previously treated by your GP for CRS and you meet the criteria on the “Interested in Participating in the MACRO Trial” page of the website, a referral to be assessed by the trial team at a centre of your choice should be straightforward. The team will then determine if you can join the study or will be able to discuss alternative treatments if you are unable to take part in MACRO. The details of the centres and the lead investigators currently recruiting are on the above website.

 

We hope that the results of this research will benefit all of our members with CRS by identifying the best treatment for them.