Letters to the Editor
Prevalence Overestimated
The cme article puts the prevalence of chronic rhinosinusitis at 5–12% (1). I believe this is a clear overestimation. One of the cited articles (2) reports a prevalence of 3.0% to 6.4%; however, these figures are based on patients referred to a hospital for radiological imaging and differ from the prevalence in the general population. The other citation provided in the cme article refers to a review (3) and reports an actual prevalence of chronic rhinosinusitis which is considerably below 5%.
The article states that nasal endoscopy is “essential for the diagnosis“ of chronic rhinosinusitis. However, no further reasons are given for this necessity, which may arise from the specific structure of the health care system in Germany where office-based ENT specialist provide outpatient care. Of course, the option of surgical treatment will be considered if significant bothersome symptoms persist for a prolonged period of time. However, as described in the article itself, treatment with topical steroids can to some extent achieve decongestion of the nasal mucosa and of polyps; thus, the prescription of inhaled steroids with a curative effect is indeed a valid treatment option, even if no endoscopy is performed.
DOI: 10.3238/arztebl.m2024.0243
Günther Egidi
28209 Bremen, Germany
guenther.egidi@posteo.de
Conflict of interest
The author declares no conflict of interest.
| 1. | Hildenbrand T, Milger-Kneidinger K, Baumann I, Weber R: The diagnosis and treatment of chronic rhinosinusitis. Dtsch Arztebl Int 2024; 121: 643–53 VOLLTEXT |
| 2. | Dietz de Loos D, Lourijsen E, Wildeman M, et al.: Prevalence of chronic rhinosinusitis in the general population based on sinus radiology and symptomatology. J Allergy Clin Immunol 2019;143:1207–14 CrossRef MEDLINE |
| 3. | Sedaghat A, Kuan E, Scadding G: Epidemiology of chronic rhinosinusitis: prevalence and risk factors. J Allergy Clin Immunol Pract 2022; 10: 1395–1403 CrossRef MEDLINE |
