The Borderline Between Acute Rhinitis and Sinusitis

Abstract

The permeability and resistance of the maxillary ostium was investigated in 44 maxillary sinuses in 23 patients with acute rhinitis which had been present for 1–10 days. Only 8 of the sinuses had a patent ostium: 16 had an obstruction which was overcome during blowing or sniffing, and the rest were obstructed during blowing and sniffing. Ostial obstruction showed a positive correlation to pathological roentgeno-graphy of the sinus, but the former was somewhat more common. It seems therefore probable that acute sinusitis usually starts with an ostial obstruction. Antral irrigation yielded a small quantity of mucus from 6 of the sinuses, but otherwise nothing. The median ostial resistance was only slightly below that in acute sinusitis.