Nasal and sinus pain: current diagnosis and treatment

Intranasal and sinus disease may result in disabling head and facial pain and serious complications. Awareness of the symptoms of acute and chronic sinusitis and their various presentations will enhance diagnostic accuracy and improve patient outcome. It is important to remember that the nasal mucosa is under autonomic control. Sinus symptomatology, whether from anatomic abnormality or chronic inflammation, may occur with and will typically be exacerbated by increased parasympathetic outflow or reduced sympathetic tone. Thus, the possibility of underlying intranasal or sinus disease must be considered in patients with atypical migraine or vascular instability headaches. A new appreciation of the impact of sinusitis on facial and head pain syndromes is developing among otolaryngologists because of the improved diagnostic capabilities afforded by combined intranasal endoscopy and modified CT. In the past, patients with nasal complaints and facial pain who had normal plain radiographs were often passed off as "chronic nasal complainers" and given decongestants or the recommendation to see a psychiatrist. On the other hand, patients with symptoms and radiologic abnormalities often underwent radical surgery aimed at the maxillary or frontal sinus, sometimes with persistence or worsening of their complaints. Now, however, underlying causes for these problems can often be found in the ostiomeatal complex and corrected with minimally invasive surgery. In general, the major sinuses appear to be more sensitive to pain before the development of chronic mucosal changes. Minor disease in critical locations within the ostiomeatal complex may therefore give rise to greater symptomatology than diffuse disease in less critical sites. Although head CT may be a routine part of the neurologist's examination in patients with headache or facial pain, routine CT techniques are inadequate to evaluate fully the ostiomeatal complex and sinuses and must be modified to rule out adequately pain of sinus origin. Nasal endoscopic examination provides a noninvasive examination by which patients may be selected for sinus CT and is a necessary part of a complete evaluation. Close cooperation between the neurologist and otolaryngologist-head and neck surgeon is therefore essential for the accurate diagnosis of this often puzzling group of patients.