Diagnostic and treatment strategies for chronic sinusitis

  Chronic sinusitis can be subdivided into chronic maxillary sinusitis, chronic septal sinusitis, chronic frontal sinusitis, chronic butterfly sinusitis, chronic polynasal sinusitis, and chronic total sinusitis, whatever kind of chronic sinusitis may lead to intermittent or persistent headache, head swelling, nasal congestion, runny nose, sneezing, memory loss, etc. It may also lead to otitis media, resulting in symptoms such as tinnitus, deafness, or throat, digestive tract dysfunction, and other systemic problems. Sinusitis in children may adversely affect the brain development of the affected child.  It should be especially emphasized that some patients may present with complaints of tinnitus, deafness, pain or foreign body sensation in the throat, and digestive tract disorders.  Currently, the most economical, effective and reliable method of diagnosing the nature, extent and severity of sinusitis is coronal CT examination of the sinuses, which is also used as the only comprehensive and objective indicator and basis for determining whether the disease is cured after treatment. Electronic rhinolaryngoscopy can be used as a reference in the diagnosis of sinusitis, but it cannot be used as a basis for confirming the diagnosis, let alone determining the nature, extent and severity of sinusitis.  The treatment strategy for chronic sinusitis diagnosed by CT examination can be summarized as follows: 1. Nasal endoscopic surgery: minimally invasive surgery. In general, chronic sinusitis with more nasal polyps must be preceded by nasal endoscopic surgery to remove nasal polyps and open sinus drainage, laying the foundation for sinusitis recovery. However, it must be noted that long-term (at least 3 months) standardized outpatient follow-up observation and combined Chinese and Western medicine medication should be carried out after surgery until the CT review is completely normal. If the perioperative medication is neglected or taken lightly, it may result in an embarrassing situation where the previous work is lost: sinusitis is prolonged, or the postoperative recovery is slow, or multiple surgeries are required.  2, Chinese and Western medicine combined with oral drug treatment: according to our clinical observation and research in the past 20 years, for chronic sinusitis without nasal polyps or only mild middle turbinate polyp-like changes, the application of standardized, continuous Chinese and Western medicine combined with oral drug treatment (generally 3 months as a course of treatment), more than 70% of cases can achieve the purpose of complete cure. This allows patients to avoid the risk and pain of surgery and save money.  3, radical surgical treatment: where more than 3 nasal endoscopic surgery and standardized perioperative drug treatment, sinusitis is still not cured, should consider the traditional radical surgical treatment to completely remove all the diseased tissue in all sinuses.