Sinusitis

Typical symptoms of Sinusitis:

  • Yellow / Green nasal mucus
  • Facial pain – worse on bending forward
  • Headaches

What is the underlying problem?

  • Your sinuses produce mucus 24/7
  • If the narrow drainage channels to your sinuses are blocked due to swelling (like with hay fever) then mucus cannot drain
  • the mucus builds up under pressure and can get infected

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Medical options:

  • Nasal Steroid sprays and even a short burst of oral steroid tablets reduce the swelling around the drainage channels –thus allowing mucus to exit and drain away
  • Decongestant sprays like Vibrocil and Iliadin help too – but can only be used for 5 days maximum
  • Increase water intake to thin down mucus
    • if your mucus is thick and sticky (too little water consumption, too much tea and coffee)
    • this thick mucus also has difficulty passing through the narrow channels of the nose

Surgical options:

The Aim is :

  • to relieve any mechanical blockages like
    • a deviated septum
    • nasal polyps (overgrowth of nasal lining due to allergy)
  • widen the natural drainage passages to the sinuses.

This is done using telescopes up the nose under general anaesthetic.

It literally is a plumbing procedure to ‘unblock the drains'

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