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  • Updated 07.29.2024
  • Released 02.14.1994
  • Expires For CME 07.29.2027

Rhinosinus-related headache

Introduction

Overview

Rhinosinusitis-related headache is commonly diagnosed when patients have facial pain and pressure accompanying their headache. However, it is not as common as believed; the headache must accompany acute or chronic rhinosinusitis, a diagnosis that is based both on clinical and radiologic evidence. Many patients who are diagnosed with rhinosinusitis-related headache and treated with antibiotics may actually suffer from a primary headache, usually migraine. Differentiation between rhinosinusitis-related headache and migraine is of paramount significance. The author explains the key points and updates pertinent advances in differentiating between these two overlapped headache disorders.

Key points

• Many patients with a primary diagnosis of "sinus headache" have migraine or tension-type headache; the differential diagnosis depends on the patient's history.

• Uncomplicated sinusitis, other than sphenoid sinusitis, should be treated with a broad-spectrum oral antibiotic for 10 to14 days.

• Sphenoid sinusitis may be associated with major complications (bacterial meningitis, cavernous sinus thrombosis, etc.) and should be managed with high-dose intravenous antibiotics.

• Treatment failure and recurrent sinusitis are indications for neuroimaging and endoscopy to search for a source of obstruction in the sinus ostia and ostiomeatal complex.

Historical note and terminology

Sinusitis is defined as the inflammation of at least one of the paranasal sinuses, which are the air-filled cavities in the facial bones that are lined with pseudostratified ciliated columnar epithelium and mucous goblet cells (33).

Caldwell noted a functional relationship between the ostia of the sinuses and the development of sinusitis (15). Hajek and associates emphasized that ostial stenosis was responsible for sinusitis (36). Hilding and Messerklinger demonstrated that ethmoid sinusitis is frequently a cause of frontal and maxillary sinusitis (39; 56). Obstruction of the ostiomeatal complex, the common drainage pathway for the ethmoid, frontal, and maxillary sinuses, was later demonstrated to be involved in the development of sinus disease (55).

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