Children Affected by Painful Sinusitis

Sinusitis is one of the most common chronic diseases in the United States. While commonly thought of as a disease affecting adults, both chronic and acute sinusitis also affect a large population of children each year.

Childhood Sinuses

The structure of a child's sinuses differs from that of an adult's. A child's sinus cavities are smaller and are still developing during childhood.

The American Academy of Otolaryngology - Head and Neck Surgery (AAO-HNS) notes that a child's sinuses are not fully developed until age 20. The maxillary and ethmoid sinuses, although small, are present at birth and the frontal sinuses are not. They grow when a child is older and complete development when a child enters adulthood.

Sinusitis vs. Cold Symptoms

While adults may complain of specific ailments associated with sinusitis such as unusual discharge from the nose, swelling or dull pain and tenderness around the eyes and cheek area, and a feeling of pressure in the head, children may have less specific symptoms of sinusitis. A child may appear to have a common cold associated with a stuffy nose, runny nose, and low fever when, in reality, they have a sinus infection.

Because symptoms of a cold and a sinus infection are similar, it is important to pay attention to the duration of related symptoms for a child. If a child has cold symptoms for more than 10 days they most likely have acute sinusitis. If a child's symptoms occur for more than a few months the common diagnosis may be chronic sinusitis.

The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases offers the following information on sinusitis symptoms:

“Most people with sinusitis, however, have pain or tenderness in several locations, and their symptoms usually do not clearly indicate which sinuses are inflamed.

Other symptoms of sinusitis can include:

In addition, the drainage of mucus from the sphenoids or other sinuses down the back of your throat (postnasal drip) can cause you to have a sore throat. Mucus drainage also can irritate the membranes lining your larynx (upper windpipe).”

The symptoms, while usually identifiably by adults, may not be as easy to identify in young children.

Treatment of Childhood Sinusitis
The most common treatment for both acute and chronic sinusitis is antibiotics, often accompanied by nasal rinsing. A new treatment option now available for children is nebulized antibiotics.

If allergy is a cause of the inflammation, allergy therapies such as antihistamines may be used. If the nasal membranes are irritated by non-allergic airborne irritants such as cigarette smoke or pollution, avoidance and air filters can be used as prevention methods.

Due to the fact that a child's nasal passages are not fully developed, sinus surgery is generally not necessary in young children. In rare cases where other medications fail, procedures to drain the sinuses may be necessary and are often successful.

Remember to pay close attention to a child's cold symptoms. If the cold seems particularly severe and long lasting, ask their pediatrician to check for a sinus infection. If diagnosed early, the family and physician can work toward relieving the painful sinusitis symptoms and fighting off the sinus infection.

The above article first appeared in the February 1, 2004 issue of Sinus News.

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