Fungal Sinusitis

Excerpt

There are several types of fungal sinusitis. The classification depends on the degree of invasion of the sinuses. The overarching categories are non-invasive and invasive fungal sinusitis.

There are three subtypes of non-invasive fungal sinusitis (FS): Fungal ball (FB), saprophytic fungal sinusitis (SFS), and allergic fungal rhinosinusitis (AFRS). Similarly, there are three subtypes of invasive fungal sinusitis (IFS): acute invasive rhinosinusitis (AIRS), chronic invasive rhinosinusitis (CIRS), and granulomatous invasive sinusitis (GIFS). To accurately diagnose fungal sinusitis, a physician must take into account several variables, including patient history and clinical presentation, imaging, endoscopic biopsy with histopathology, and lab work.

For this activity and to ease following the material, we classify the infections into allergic fungal sinusitis, fungal ball, invasive fungal sinusitis, and granulomatous sinusitis.

The other categorization of fungal sinusitis has its basis on the immune-competence profile of patients. The broad understanding is that immunocompromised patients are the primary victims of fungal sinusitis. The non-invasive fungal sinusitis tends to primarily occur in immunocompetent individuals as opposed to invasive sinusitis's which is more prevalent in immunodeficiency. Invasive fungal sinusitis could be fatal in that the infection could spread into the intracerebral space; this correlates with an increase in mortality and morbidity of victims. Immunocompromised patients should take special precautions and should be aggressively treated should there be any suspicion of fungal sinusitis.