Pediatric chronic rhinosinusitis.

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: Pediatric acute and chronic rhinosinusitis are common pediatric ailments averaging six to eight occurrences a year with 0.5-5% of these progressing to acute sinusitis. A yet undefined number of children progress to chronic sinusitis. Significant resources are spent treating children for sinus infections that would otherwise clear on their own. Practice guidelines for chronic sinusitis are needed.

RECENT FINDINGS: Good prospective studies are lacking because of the shear numbers of patients that must be enrolled to obtain a homogeneous population for study. This lack of good prospective studies prevents the development of pediatric practice guidelines for medical and surgical management of chronic rhinosinusitis. Most recent studies focus primarily on pathophysiology and medical management. An area of significant knowledge deficit is the role of gastroesophageal reflux disease in chronic sinusitis. There have been no recent significant changes in the medical or surgical management of chronic rhinosinusitis other than the rationale of performing an adenoidectomy prior to endoscopic sinus surgery for eradication of biofilms.

SUMMARY: Current therapy for pediatric chronic rhinosinusitis continues to be prolonged courses of antibiotics and if the symptoms persist, staged surgical intervention with initial adenoidectomy followed by partial or anterior ethmoidectomy.