With continued facial growth and development, the lateral nasal wall in a growing child is particularly apt to close off surgically created openings. To help ensure surgical success, the operative site must be thoroughly suctioned and cleaned at least several times or more, often with endoscopic assistance. In the pediatric population, such measures may necessitate successive use of brief-acting anesthetics. When suctioning and cleaning are neglected, cicatricial closure of the operative site is likely. Fortunately, the number of pediatric patients with sinusitis that cannot be managed medically is extremely small.
Pediatric sinusitis remains an area in which clinical judgment reigns supreme.
There is neither a clinical pathway nor a gold standard that gives clinicians the correct answer to its appropriate diagnosis and treatment.