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Sinusitis

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SINUSITIS
INTRODUCTION
Infections of the sinuses are not a pleasant thing to have for anyone. Each year, once spring comes and again during cold and flu season, a large number of people develop allergies or sinus blockages that are typically very unpleasant. Allergies from pollen and blockages from the cold or flu, sometimes develop into more serious conditions such as sinusitis. Both acute and chronic sinusitis can be debilitating; as anyone that has ever had a sinus infection can attest to. Anyone who suffers sinusitis can testify to the headaches, difficulty breathing and its ability to impair the simplest of tasks. For people, prone to these infections, life can be difficult and they will seek and form of relief. However, there are …show more content…

The human skull, as any medical student will tell you, has four pairs of sinuses named the Frontal, Maxillary, Sphenoid, and Ethmoid. These sinus cavities simplistically explained, filter our air and help give contour to our faces. But, what happens when we breath in a foreign body, a particle, bacteria or even a virus? In many cases, humans can develop an infection know as sinusitis and it can be either acute or it can be chronic in nature. In a paper titled, “Evaluating Complications of Chronic Sinusitis,” authors Hong, Pereyra, Guo, Breslin & Melville, (2017) defined the differences in sinusitis as, “Acute sinusitis is usually viral, whereas chronic sinusitis is mostly caused by anaerobes, gram-negative bacteria, Staphylococcus aureus, and fungi (para. 1). As one can see there are several causes of sinusitis. Viruses such as the kind you would have during the cold or flu, account mostly for acute sinusitis but does not define the condition. Different forms of bacterial infections and fungal spores contribute to chronic sinusitis but do not define the condition either. It is the duration and symptoms that define whether it is classified as acute or chronic and not by the type of infection. Sinusitis itself has several factors that must be met in order for it to be diagnosed as acute or chronic. The criteria required to diagnose sinusitis’s different forms per Morcom, Phillips Pastuszek & Timperley (2016) is …show more content…

However, chronic sinusitis that has turned bacterial can be treated and the normal course of action is to prescribe antibiotics. Antibiotics are effective in treating Sinusitis and according to Richard Rosenfeld, M.D., (2016) in his paper titled “Acute Sinusitis in Adults,” it is stated that, “antibiotics are prescribed for 84 to 91% of patients with acute sinusitis that is diagnosed in emergency departments and outpatient settings” (p. 962). Although antibiotics are the go to cure for Sinusitis, making the duration shorter, it has been shown that most cases clear up on their own with no need for medications at all. In his paper, Doctor Rosenfeld (2016) also notes, “approximately 85% of persons have a reduction or resolution of symptoms within 7 to 15 days without antibiotic therapy” (p.962). So, it has been shown that although a nuisance, most people have sinusitis resolve itself after about 2 weeks and antibiotics really should only be used for severe cases that do not resolve on their own. So, what does a severe case of sinusitis look like, what factors are involved and just how bad can this infection get when it does not resolve on its own but instead turns much

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