ABSTRACT
The medical management of acute sinusitis remains problematic due to the inherent contradictions concerning diagnosis and treatment. Although a significant number of upper respiratory tract infections (URTIs) requiring evaluation by health care providers occur annually, the ability to precisely distinguish bacterial sinusitis from viral rhinosinusitis by clinical criteria still does not exist. Even though the majority of cases of acute bacterial sinusitis will resolve spontaneously without specific anti-infective therapy, antimicrobial treatment shortens the duration of illness and lessens the severity of symptoms. An increasing prevalence of respiratory pathogens resistant to traditionally prescribed antibiotics has been documented during the last decade, yet standard antibacterial regimens still result in acceptably high cure rates despite probable microbial resistance in vitro.
