SERIOUS UNEXPECTED SINUS INFECTION DISCOVERED BY CT SCANNING FOR PRESUMED NEUROLOGICAL DISEASE

Serious infection in the paranasal sinuses may present with symptoms s uggestive of neurological disease and thus lead to delay in the diagno sis and subsequent treatment. We present three such cases in whom the initial diagnoses had been acute optic neuritis, a posterior communica ting aneurysm and an intracranial space occupying lesion. The fourth p atient had meningitis but the paranasal sinuses had not initially been considered as a possible source of infection. The current methods of diagnosing sinusitis are discussed.