Germ warfare: The battle for clear noses

Fighting off a sinus infection sometimes requires a detailed battle plan requiring physicians and patients to join forces for a lengthy course of treatment.

By Susan J. Landers, AMNews staff. Feb. 3, 2003.

Millions of miserable, drippy-nosed, stuffy-headed and pain-wracked patients shuffle into doctors' offices each year. They are among the multitude of Americans affected by sinusitis, and the number is growing. Sinusitis is considered the most common chronic condition to beset humans.

Yet despite the frequency with which those holes in our heads are prone to harbor infections, diagnosing and treating sinusitis can be very difficult. It can be done. But the best method of attack is not always clear.

Wellington S. Tichenor, MD, a New York City allergist with his own sinus problems, has been treating people with sinusitis for 20 years. "When I had sinus infections, I felt like life wasn't worth living any more, between the exhaustion, pain and just feeling miserable," Dr. Tichenor writes on his Web site.

He readily acknowledges how difficult sinusitis is to treat. But don't give up, he advises patients. "If you're not getting better, it doesn't mean that you're not getting good care, but it may mean you're not getting the very best care. Unfortunately, most doctors don't understand the best way to treat it."

The painful truth, though, is that many patients and their physicians do give up. "People get to the stage where they have symptoms on and off, they may take courses of antibiotics which may or may not help, and then they say, 'Well, I just have to live with this,' " said Howard M. Druce, MD, who chairs the sinusitis committee for the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology.