Symptoms of sinusitis include headaches, congestion, facial pain, earaches and other symptoms. | Unsplash/Brittany Colette
Symptoms of sinusitis include headaches, congestion, facial pain, earaches and other symptoms. | Unsplash/Brittany Colette
Almost 50% of people with moderate to severe asthma also experience chronic sinusitis.
Sinusitis is an infection or inflammation of the sinuses, and chronic sinusitis occurs when symptoms become more frequent or worse. Sinus infections may cause chronic sinus inflammation and symptoms including headaches, congestion, facial pain, and earaches and among other symptoms.
The Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America recommends that those who experience sinusitis more than 3 times a year, or for longer than 12 weeks, seek a specialist to be treated.
"Asthma is inflammation of lower airway, sinusitis is inflammation of the upper airway and that airway is continuous," Dr. Jeffrey Feinfield at Bella Vista ENT told Kings County Times. "So probably 70% of the time if a patient has asthma, they're going to have sinusitis as well, and vice versa, so it's important to be able to diagnose that and try to treat all inflammatory mediators. And that's where allergy comes in, because if we if we do surgery on a patient that has chronic sinusitis and asthma, but we don't look at their allergies, the inflammation is going to return."
Balloon sinuplasty is a newer type of surgery that is minimally invasive and offers quick patient recovery periods, according to nonprofit medical organization Cedars Sinai.
"Balloon Sinuplasty enables us to dilate a blocked sinus," Feinfield said. "We can reestablish the proper drainage pathway."
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