Intracranial complications from sinusitis

Despite increasingly better diagnostic and therapeutic methods intracranial sinogenic complications, invariably pose a direct threat to the lives of patients and a challenge for otolaryngologists.

The aim of the study was to analyze patients with intracranial sinogenic complications treated at the Department of Otolaryngology and Otolaryngological Oncology of Poznań University of Medical Sciences in the years 2000-2013.

Analysis covered the period from January 2000 to December 2013. Twenty-one patients with intracranial sinogenic complications were treated at the Department of Otolaryngology in Poznan during that time.

Material mainly included young men. Brain abscesses were the most common complications. Intracranial complications of sinusitis rarely occurred in isolation, often coexisting with other intracranial pathologies. A significant increase in the incidence was recorded in 2013. Treatment involved concurrently alleviating inflammation in the sinuses through implementation of broad-spectrum antibiotics for several weeks and decompressing the organized intracerebral abscesses, empyema, epidural and/or subdural abscesses under control of neuronavigation. There were no patient deaths recorded in the analyzed period.

The risk of developing intracranial sinogenic complications is low but invariably present and should be included in the differential diagnosis. Since the incidence of intracranial complications may increase in the course of prevailing viral infection, it should raise diagnostic vigilance.