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Review
. 2021 Jan 9;11(1):79.
doi: 10.3390/brainsci11010079.

Etiology of 'Sinus Headache'-Moving the Focus from Rhinology to Neurology. A Systematic Review

Marcin Straburzyński  1 , Anna Gryglas-Dworak  2 , Magdalena Nowaczewska  3 , Eliza Brożek-Mądry  4 , Paolo Martelletti  5   6
Affiliations
Review

Etiology of 'Sinus Headache'-Moving the Focus from Rhinology to Neurology. A Systematic Review

Marcin Straburzyński et al. Brain Sci. .

Abstract

'Sinus headache and/or facial pain' (SH) is a common complaint encountered by otorhinolaryngologists, neurologists and general practitioners. However, several studies suggested that the majority of those cases may be attributed to primary headaches (i.e., migraine and tension-type headache (TTH). The purpose of this review is to evaluate the etiology of SH. The first part includes cross-sectional studies analyzing the prevalence of respective diagnoses in subjects with SH. The majority of these publications indicate that migraine and TTH are the most prevalent causes of SH, although most of these studies were conducted in a clinical setting. The second part of this review included treatment trials in subjects with SH. The findings from this part of the review show that SH without rhinosinusitis responds well to pharmacotherapy targeted at primary headaches. This observation further supports a neurologic etiology of the majority of SH cases.

Keywords: facial pain; midfacial segment pain; migraine; sinus headache; sinusitis; tension-type headache.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Study selection diagram. RS—rhinosinusitis, MCP—mucosal contact point. (see Supplementary Materials File 2 for the list of full-text articles excluded).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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