Sphenoid sinus infection, anyone heard of this?

[Jenny Wren]

I've been having occupital headaches and facial tingling.  My doc sent me in for a brain MRI.  Everything was normal, except the radiologist noted "EXTENSIVE sphenoid sinus thickening, lesser in frontal region.  Been taking 2000 mg amoxicillin fro 2 weeks, I still have large amounts of drainage.  I have been reading that these areas of thickening can cause very serious problems if not treated.  I'm a little scared, my next step is a ENT.  My question is Can this cause the problems that I am experiencing?  Should I maybe be on stronger antibiotics? Thank you very much.

[FA007]

Thank you so much for your post.... I had scans yesterday at UTMB  because of sputum with black threads (since 05) and migraines.  I won't have results until some time next week, as they are also doing a sputum culture.  As my dad's main caregiver, I was exposed to high levels of black toxic mold (aspergillus/penicillium) at his house.  We weren't aware his house had mold until we moved him into a home.  He is diabetic (poorly controlled) and has dementia now. When he was in the hospital, I saw his sputum and it also had black threads.  After that, Dad and I went  to an ENT doctor in Houston, but they only did one scan and found nothing.  A nurse told me the only allergy doctors that check for aspergillus are Texas Childrens and UTMB.   If  they find something hopefully, the "power trippers" in my family will allow Dad to go. From doing research, I've found that fungus can get into the brain through the sphenoid sinus and cause dementia. Will Amphotercin B cross the blood brain barrier?  Has dementia ever been reversed after amphotercin B?    

[Tanny425]

Thank you for your post.  I finally feel like I've been given both professional and personal information.  I only had my cat scan a few hours ago.  I've been in severe pain for six days now.  I felt like i was beaten with a bat at the base of my skull!  During the night I have to move my head with my hands.  I couldn't move!  I had to drink from a straw and the pain of swallowing was unbearable.  I have awful body aches.  So here I am today hearing my doctor tell me about the sphenoid.  He prescribed actiq but insurance wants precert of some kind so I just took a dilaudid (rx said 1or2) and it didn't help so I took the second and it took the edge off the pain.  I've never had any kind of sinus/nasal issue ever and I'm 53.  I personally think looking back now this has been coming on for about a month or two.  I'd been waking up unable to breath from my mouth or nose and had to "clear my throat" so to speak.  Then 2 days before the sudden "hit with a baseball bat" issue I was to an ENT and diagnosed with Labrythinitis.  This is just awful and wants to be debillitating!  Stress or just a fluke of things going on?!  I thought for sure they were going to throw me the old garbage pail diagnosis ... Fibromyalgia!  I don't know where this is going but I suppose I will visit here for more input.  I hope everyone gets the relief they are looking for ...   :)

[Researchpro]

Unfortunately, many ENTs want to do surgery first.  I do not know if this is because they get more money for the surgery than for ordering IV antibiotics that cross the blood brain barrier or what.  Did you receive any IV therapy?  If your ENT did not give you antibiotic or anti fungal therapy (did they do cultures to see what was causing your infection?), then the infection can come back even after an extended period of time.  See my previous post.  Many times the infection spreads to other important area of the brain so just "draining" the sphenoid sinus, especially in a case as serious as yours, will not take care of all the infection.

[Researchpro]

I am a PhD microbiologist researcher and have been suffering from sphenoid sinus disease from an injury for one year.  It is VERY difficult to find even an ears nost and throat specialist who has expertise in this area.  The peer reviewed medical literature (to which most people do not have access) indicate that it is very important to have intraveinous (IV) antibiotics for 14 days not just two.  In addition, they need to be the type of antibiotic that crosses the blood brain barrier.  Infection of the sphenoid sinus can spread to the brain including the hypothalamus and pituitary, optic nerve, etc.  There are 13 critical structures immediately adjacent to the sphnoid sinuses.  Fungus can also infect the sphenoid sinus and the IV drug needs to be specific for this as well.  You are correct that this is a very serious infection and it is only made worse by the lack of expertise by our physicians.

[wishnwell]

I was disagnosed with a sphenoid infection 5 years ago.  I've had to undergo 4 surgeries to finally get the infection fully drained; the last surgery was a year and a half ago.  The last surgery was quite a scare, the sphenoid cavity was bulging and about to burst.  Because of this bulge, there has been a tremendous amount of nerve damage around the sphenoid area.  I still suffer with headaches, the nerves tingle out of control and then eventually pain sets in where the nerves were excited and tingling.  I am on various medications and the latest diagnosis was it may or may not repair itself.  It seems here lately the symptoms have gotten worse, my eye twitches uncontrollably, the feet tingle, weather patterns wreck havoc on my head and my memory seems to be slipping every now and then.  i'm 29 years old.  I'm just curious if anyone is familiar with any of these side effects and knowing my history, if I should be concerned that there isn't anything else happening in my neuro system besides nerve damage.

[lyntrell24]

I have always gotten nasty chronic sinus infections.  In September 2009, I started having problems with swallowing food (the reflex would stop working mid swallow and I would choke), migraines started happening frequently, my blood pressure would sky rocket upwards of 190/130 (normally 110/72), symptoms of Raynaud's syndrome and I was lethargic and sick.  I was treated for bacterial sinus infection and bacterial kidney infection.  After being rushed to the emergency room with a migraine that felt like an aneurysm my doctor ordered an MRI on my brain and they found that I had a sphenoid sinus infection.  I was immediately sent to an ENT for evaluation.  Upon the consultation with one of the best ENT's in the country located in Texas (******.net is their website and any of these doctors are fantastic!!! They come highly recommended by everyone in the metroplex). It was found that I had serious sphenoid sinus infection that has probably been there for years but was kept at bay due to treatment of my chronic regular sinus infections.  Due to the new affects I was having I was scheduled for an emergency sinus surgery (sphenoid and frontal sinuses).  While he was in there he widen the passages of all the other sinus if he felt it was needed to avoid further surgeries in the future.  Since this surgery (after about 2 months of healing completely) all the symptoms described previously have disappeared and I have never felt better.  Even when the weather changes my sinuses do not swell to the point of irritation to cause an infection.  I have had one sinus infection which was very mild considering what I am use to.  I highly recommend having surgery if it is recommended to avoid unnecessary suffering and pain.  And if you are ever in TEXAS I highly recommend any of the from the ******.net.  

[Rjsmommy81214]

Where in texas