Sinusitis as a common disease in children is still neglected by many parents. Some parents may wonder why my child often has a “cold” and always has a hard time getting well. Usually long yellow snot is always dragged, and the nasal voice is heavy, and that’s not all, the appetite for food is low, the spirit is poor, and it is difficult to concentrate in class, which has affected the child’s normal life and learning for a long time. In fact, parents should be alert at this time, perhaps this is “sinusitis” in the play.
There are four pairs of sinuses in the human head and face, each of which is a bony cavity containing air and has its own sinus mouth connected to the nasal cavity. Under normal circumstances, these sinuses drainage and ventilation are very smooth, but if the sinus mouth blockage affects the sinus ventilation, or there are strong external pathogens invade the mucous membrane in the sinuses, sinusitis may occur. Children because of their own sinus mouth is relatively large, pathogens are easy to invade the sinuses through the sinus mouth, and children’s resistance to the outside world is low, some children also suffer from asthma, allergic rhinitis and other immune diseases, while children are naturally active, prone to nasal foreign bodies, nasal trauma, all these factors lead to children susceptible to sinusitis.
Sinusitis in children is divided into acute and chronic, and acute sinusitis is likely to become chronic if not actively treated. Therefore, for children with sinusitis, early detection and early treatment is particularly important. Generally a week after a cold and still have a stuffy nose and runny nose, parents should consider whether they have sinusitis, and then it is best to take their children to the doctor early. If sinusitis is diagnosed, don’t worry, foreign scholars have proposed a ladder of treatment for children with sinusitis: the first step is comprehensive medication, the second step is to remove the enlarged adenoids, and the third step is nasal endoscopic surgery.
Most acute sinusitis can be cured by timely medication (antibiotics, hormones, anti-allergy drugs, etc.), rest and care. However, chronic sinusitis is usually more difficult to treat, and sometimes standard medication cannot cure it, while endoscopic surgery can affect the child’s future craniofacial development, which can be daunting for parents. In this case, if the child has moderate to severe adenoid hypertrophy, adenoidectomy with medication can be considered as a comprehensive treatment.
Adenoids are lymphatic tissues located in the nasopharynx. They are largest in childhood and gradually shrink in size, disappearing in adulthood. During childhood, especially in younger children, adenoids are easily enlarged due to various reasons. So what is the relationship between enlarged adenoids and sinusitis? First, the adenoids can block the posterior nostrils, causing poor drainage of nasal secretions. Fourth, adenoid hypertrophy, when swallowing or breathing will be the adenoids crypt secretions and the pathogenic microorganisms hidden in it squeezed into the nasal cavity and sinuses; finally, adenoid hypertrophy will also affect the nasopharynx “self-purification” ability. All of the above indicate that adenoid hypertrophy can trigger or promote the occurrence and development of sinusitis. On the other hand, recurring acute sinusitis or chronic sinusitis can also cause adenoidal hypertrophy, before the two form a vicious circle, so that sinusitis does not heal.
Prevention is better than cure, and it is most important to prevent the various factors that make children susceptible to sinusitis. If sinusitis is really diagnosed, parents should not shy away from treating it and should kill it in its cradle with timely and effective medication. In chronic sinusitis, when reasonable and adequate medication does not work, either simple removal of the enlarged adenoids is complemented by aggressive combination therapy or nasal endoscopic surgery with removal of the enlarged adenoids has been shown in numerous studies to be helpful in promoting the healing of sinusitis in children by breaking the vicious cycle between adenoids and sinusitis.
All in all, adhering to a scientific approach to diagnosis and treatment and setting up an individualized treatment plan for your child will definitely free them from sinusitis.