Common Cold and Acute Rhinosinusitis: Up-to-Date Management in 2020

Abstract

Purpose of review: The purposes of the review are as follows: (1) to define acute rhinosinusitis (ARS) and their phenotypes, (2) to highlight the ARS management according to international guidelines, (3) to compare the physicians' management with the ARS guideline recommendations, and (4) to report ARS socioeconomic burden.

Recent findings: Bacterial and non-bacterial ARS have similar symptoms, although they can be discriminated by using a combination of specific signs and symptoms. The prescription of antibiotics should be limited to clearly suspected bacterial ARS. There is an overuse of diagnosis tools and treatment prescriptions. The total cost per ARS episode in Europe is over €1000. ARS is mainly an inflammatory disease triggered by viral infection, and few cases end up developing bacterial infection. In most of the cases, it is a self-resolving disease which diagnosis is mainly clinical and the treatment symptomatic. The incidence of complications is low and independent of antibiotic use. There is a high socioeconomic burden associated to ARS.

Keywords: Acute rhinosinusitis; Bacterial acute rhinosinusitis; Common cold; Costs; EPOS; Respiratory tract infections.

Fig. 1

Definition of ARS phenotype bases on EPOS 2020 Consensus. The duration of symptoms is used to differentiate viral ARS (common cold) from post-viral ARS, which is considered when the symptoms persist longer than 10 days or worsen after 5 days. Bacterial ARS should be suspected at any time when the presence of three or more of the sings or symptoms related to bacterial ARS are found