Rational therapy of acute viral rhinosinusitis in outpatient practice

Abstract

Background. Acute respiratory viral infections are the most common reason for seeking care from outpatient physicians. Most cases of acute respiratory viral infections are caused by different serotypes of respiratory viruses, which cause diseases with very similar clinical symptoms. Acute rhinosinusitis holds one of the leading positions in the clinical picture of acute respiratory viral infections. Approaches to the therapy of this disease include the influence on various links of the pathological process. Preference is given to drugs that have a wide range of therapeutic effects with minimal or no side effects. Plant medicines that have a complex secretolytic, secretomotor, mucoactive, anti-inflammatory, antiviral, antibacterial and antiseptic action may become the drugs of choice in the treatment of patients with acute viral rhinosinusitis. Medicines of plant origin have a number of undoubted advantages, such as the breadth of therapeutic effect, compatibility with other drugs and among themselves, the possibility of safe and prolonged use in uncomplicated forms of disease, use to improve the effectiveness of specific treatment and supportive therapy, the possibility of use at home. All this makes them one of the essential components of treatment of patients in outpatient and polyclinic practice, especially since modern herbal medicines, having a pronounced effect on cold symptoms, do not show significant side effects.

Conclusion. Convincing evidence-based data on the efficacy and safety of herbal preparations allow to prescribe them both as monotherapy and as part of the complex treatment of diseases of the nose and sinuses to reduce the severity and duration of symptoms of acute viral rhinosinusitis, as well as to prevent the development of complications.