ABSTRACT
It is not unusual in an allergy practice to see a child with persistent rhinitis symptoms, negative skin tests, and a variable response to therapy. Because pure nonallergic rhinitis is a common condition affecting approximately 20% of all patients with rhinitis (1), it would be reasonable to assume that there would be a vast body of publications in the medical literature to help the clinician assess and treat this condition appropriately in all affected age groups. Surprisingly, however, information available concerning pediatric patients with this medical condition has been extremely sparse in comparison to the considerable literature published regarding adult patients with nonallergic rhinitis. As a result, the approach to the diagnosis and treatment of children with nonallergic rhinitis is a relatively limited endeavor for the practitioner, and nonallergic rhinitis is a medical condition that has not been dealt with adequately in previously published reviews of rhinitis.
