Chronic Sinusitis and Infectious Asthma

BEFORE one tackles a subject of this magnitude, he should at least define his terms. The type of sinusitis I am talking about should be labeled "chronic suppurative and hyperplastic rhinosinusitis" because the disease process involves the nasal passages as well as the paranasal sinuses. My remarks are based on a study of the case histories of 50 patients who had advanced forms of the disease, who had nasal symptoms for at least one year prior to my initial treatment, and who were followed for a minimum period of five years, some of them as long as 25 years. Pus and polyps were demonstrated in one or both sides of the nose or in the sinuses. Sometimes pus was not evident untilclosed abscessesin the ethmoid cells or in the antral lining were found at the time of operation. Ash and Raum1give a good description of