Part Two of Chapter Three: Sinusitis – a Portrait

A glimpse of the physiology

Inflammation of the paranasal sinuses is what physicians call a rhinosinusitis. Bacterial, fungal, viral infections or allergic reactions can be the cause(s) for the illness.

If you look at the picture below, you will immediately see that there are numerous cavities in your head where sensitive soft tissues exist. Your task is to keep these soft tissues moist, clean and healthy. On the simplified image drawing below, you can see frontal, ethmoid and maxillary sinuses. There are also sphenoid sinuses – below of what we see on the image.

All I want to explain here is that a sinusitis is not a “cold” – it’s not a simple rhinitis. Your sinuses are a sensitive and complex system. The airways to these sinuses must be open, free and healthy. Depending on the location of the inflammation, the problems and the pain can originate from one or several sinus cavities:

• Frontal sinusitis
• Maxillary sinusitis
• Ethmoid sinusitis
• Sphenoid sinusitis

Now you might have learned a few basics. If you haven’t seen this picture before, it will usually have to effect to wake you up. Do not risk neglecting an acute inflammation in one or several of these sensitive, big cavities. A rhinitis can often be the start of this. Furthermore, for many people, a sinusitis will develop as one part of the bigger picture of other respiratory tract diseases. You get tonsillitis and suddenly you also have a developed sinusitis. There are many researchers and scientists who believe that sinusitis is more or less just one part of a bigger number of related diseases occurring in the respiratory tract.

Possible complications – Read this if you think your sinusitis is not worth careful treatment

Do you “only” have an acute sinusitis? You have a lot of work to do and cannot quit smoking? No time to see an ORL? Well, I don’t want to make you nervous, but some people are awkwardly unaffected when they have this condition. If you are not nuts, complications should not occur. However, if you have a viral or bacterial infection, which you don’t handle accordingly, it may produce cause life-threatening situations.

I’ll keep it short. Examples of complications are:

·      Brain / meningitis – The Infection passes through a certain bone structure and may infect the cells that are near the brain. An abscess can develop in the brain if the infection travels to the brain. This is a life threatening condition

·      Eyes – Infections could spread to the orbit, causing complications such as light inflammations of the eyelid to conditions resulting in blindness.

·      Asthma – If you have asthma and a chronic sinusitis, a sinusitis episode can provoke asthma attacks.

·      Fatal infections – due to aneurysms or infected blood clots in the intracranial cavity

·      Permanent loss of smell and taste due to nerve damages

·      Destruction of bone due to chronic sinusitis