The following symptoms and complaints may indicate rhinitis (cold):
Leading symptoms
- Rhinorrhea – excessive secretion (runny nose) (initially watery, after 3-4 days purulent/purulent).
- Sneezing
- Blocked nasal passages
Associated symptoms
- Burning or tingling in the nose
- Difficulty breathing
- Deterioration of olfactory and gustatory perception
- General feeling of illness
- Head pressure
- Irritative cough
- Eye tears
- Later feeling of dryness of the nasal mucosa
If necessary, there is also a rhinopharyngitis. Symptoms and complaints of pharyngitis see below the disease of the same name. Rhinopharyngitis is the talk when there is inflammation of the nasal mucosa (rhinitis) as well as the pharyngeal mucosa (pharyngitis).
Warning signs (red flags) in complicated rhinosinusitis
- Anamnestic information:
- Immunodeficiency or suppression.
- Severe underlying conditions
- Persistent fever
- Severe pain
- Facial swelling
- Lethargy
- Neurological symptoms (e.g., meningismus/painful neck stiffness).
- Purulent secretion from middle nasal passage on nasal endoscopy (rhinoscopy).
Behind this may be the following dangerous clinical pictures:
- Orbital phlegmon (bacterial inflammation of the orbit) (facial swelling).
- Frontal bone osteomyelitis (frontal bone osteomyelitis).
- Intracerebral abscess (brain abscess) – encapsulated collection of pus in the brain.
- Meningitis (meningitis)
- Sinus cavernosus thrombosis (blood clot formation in brain vessels; in the context of sinusitis frontalis (sinusitis) or sinusitis sphenoidalis/sphenoid sinusitis).
The above risks occur with:
- Adults: almost exclusively only in acute episodes of chronic rhinosinusitis.
- Children: in acute pansinusitis (involvement of all sinuses) or sinusitis frontalis.
