Herbal drug BNO 1016 is safe and effective in the treatment of acute viral rhinosinusitis

Jund, Rainer; Mondigler, Martin; Stammer, Holger; Stierna, Pontus; Bachert, Claus

Acute rhinitis is the first step in the development of rhinosinusitis. The demarcation of acute and chronic rhinosinusitis is mainly defined by length of the disease and not by specific symptoms. According to the definitions in EPOS 2012 an ARS is completely healed without remaining symptoms after 12 weeks, while in a chronic rhinosinusitis one or several symptoms still remain after that period. An acute viral rhinosinusitis lasts less than 10 days while an acute post-viral rhinosinusitis persists after 10 days. In the latter case there is often a biphasic symptom pattern with persisting or impairing symptoms by the end of the 10-day period. ARS is predominantly caused by a number of viruses (rhinovirus, parainfluenza-1 and -2, coronavirus, and influenza viruses), which all induce an increase of proinflammatory cytokines and neutrophils [2] . A similar type of reaction occurs also in a bacterial infection. Thus, an ARS can easily be misdiagnosed as a bacterial infection and is therefore treated with antibiotics, which at this stage of the disease does not improve healing.