Sinusitis is one of the most common reasons people go to the doctor, causing an estimated 20 million doctor visits in the U.S. each year. The illness also accounts for a vast number of antibiotic prescriptions—nearly 1 in 5 (Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2008;2:CD000243).
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July 2012The American Academy of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery (AAO-HNS) Foundation set the standard in developing a clinical practice guideline for sinusitis in 2007. At the time, the only materials available from otolaryngology were consensus documents and literature reviews, said Rich Rosenfeld, MD, MPH, professor and chair of otolaryngology at SUNY Downstate Medical Center in Brooklyn, N.Y., and lead author of the AAO guidelines. “There were not really any validated, trustworthy guidelines.”
Now, five years later, the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) has drawn up its own set of guidelines. “The IDSA has been putting out clinical practice guidelines for some time, but there had never been one on sinusitis,” said Tony Chow, MD, professor emeritus in the division of infectious diseases at the University of British Columbia and Vancouver Hospital and lead author of the IDSA guidelines. “It’s a controversial area and also an area for overuse of antibiotics.”