Abstract

The objective of the present study was studying the prevailing bacterial etiology of Chronic Maxillary Sinusitis (CMS) in different age groups, to evaluate the impact predisposing factors to chronicity and to estimate the susceptibility of the isolated microorganisms to commonly used antimicrobial agents. This study was carried out on 103 patients (60 males and 43 females) in age ranged from (12 to 67 years) who were diagnosed clinically and radiologically to have CMS. Culturing of sinus aspirates from all patients on an appropriate media to isolate aerobic and anaerobic bacteria was done. The isolates were identified by conventional methods and their sensitivities against commonly used antimicrobial agents were tested. The present study revealed that CMS was higher in 40 males (66.67%) than in 25 females (58.14%) of group II and it was more frequent in adults than in children. Positive cultures were detected in 97 (94.2%) cases of which pure aerobic bacteria were isolated in 11 cases (10.7%) and pure obligate anaerobes were isolated in 9 (8.7 %), while mixed of both were found in 77 cases (74.8%). Our study showed a strong association between CMS and predisposing factors as allergic rhinitis, septal devia-tion and nasal polyposis, but it showed a poor association with aspirin sensitivity. High susceptibility of all aerobic isolates to vancoymycin, cefotaxime, cefaclor, clarithromycin was detected while, anaerobic isolates showed high susceptibility to moxifloxacin, cefotaxime and meropenem.

Key words: Chronic maxillary sinusitis (CMS), aerobic isolates, antimicrobial agents.