Chronic sinusitis and the internist. Inadequate training and education

CHRONIC sinusitis is the most common chronic health complaint in the United States, surpassing both arthritis and hypertension.2Most visits for diagnosis and treatment of sinusitis (87%) are to primary care physicians.3Conversely, 33% to 50% of all visits to primary care physicians are related to upper respiratory tract and related head and neck infections.4What preparation have internists had for this task? What guidance would their reference library and periodical literature offer? What do they think chronic sinusitis is, and what symptoms do they think it can cause? Where in their literature are the most recent advances in diagnosis and treatment reported? Training in internal medicine is mostly inpatient. Demands for a larger and richer outpatient exposure have been most recently expressed in a workshop-retreat on the internal medicine curriculum.5Both the ambulatory and inpatient exposure are directed toward the accumulation of an extraordinary volume