Therapeutic options in the management of headache attributed to rhinosinusitis.
Sinus headache is a common diagnosis when patients have facial pain and pressure accompanying their headache. However, acute sinus headache is in fact rare, and the headache must accompany acute bacterial rhinosinusitis (ABRS), a diagnosis which is based both on clinical and radiological evidence. In fact, sinus headache is a misnomer. The only headache related to sinus disease, as recognised by the International Headache Society (IHS), is headache attributed to rhinosinusitis (HARS; section 11.5 of IHS criteria). Many patients who are diagnosed with sinus headache and treated with antibiotics have a primary headache, usually migraine. This is an important distinction and the treatment is very different. This review covers the most recent definitions, epidemiology, pathophysiology, diagnostics and treatment of ABRS and the resulting headache as defined by the IHS.
Gupta
Madhavi
M
Thomas Jefferson University, Jefferson Headache Center, Gibbon Building, Suite #8130, 111 South Eleventh Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19107, USA. Madhavi.Gupta@mail.tju.edu
Silberstein
Stephen D
SD
D000700:Analgesics / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D019468:Disease Management; D006261:Headache / Q000150:complications / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000188:drug therapy*; D006801:Humans; D012852:Sinusitis / Q000150:complications / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000188:drug therapy*
D000700:Analgesics; D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents