Anti-Inflammatory and Anti-Allergy Drugs in Rhinosinusitis

Rhinosinusitis constitutes one of the most common respiratory tract diseases affecting up to 15% of the adult population in the Western world. Sinusitis is almost always accompained by inflammation of the contiguous nasal mucosa, thus the correct terminology is now rhinosinusitis. It can be classified into acute and chronic form by duration, or into acute bacterial rhinosinusitis or viral rhinosinusitis, by symptoms. This paper describes some aspects about epidemiology, pathophysiology, and predisposing factors in rhinosinusitis and nasal polyps, offering evidence based recommendations on diagnosis and first line and second line treatment. The medical management of rhinosinusitis is related to the duration and severity of symptoms and a variety of general and topical pharmacologic interventions are available, for eliminating causative factors and controlling the inflammatory and infectious components. The Authors make a review of the literature to describe the most useful anti-allergy and anti-inflammatory drugs in the management of rhinosinusitis.