Causes of Fungal Sinusitis, Fungal Sinus Infection Symptoms, Invasive Fungal Sinusitis

Fungal sinusitis is caused by fungi enjoying refuge in your moist, dark nasal cavity.  Fungus can reproduce without light and absorbs its food from dead organic matter.

But under weakened immune system conditions, some types of fungi feed on living tissue and spread to surrounding tissue.  This potentially lethal situation is called invasive fungal sinusitis.

As invading fungus reproduces, it can spread rapidly into your blood, bones, eyes and central nervous system with very destructive outcomes.  However, most sinus fungal infections are noninvasive.

Invasive sinusitis is categorized as acute or chronic.  Acute invasive fungal sinusitis is a medical emergency, requiring immediate removal of infected tissue.   Its typical symptoms include:

  • fever
  • cough
  • headache
  • face swelling
  • mental issues
  • nasal discharge
  • visual problems
  • facial pain, numbness

Those suffering from chronic invasive fungal sinusitis usually experience ongoing sinus infection symptoms.  Aspergillus fungus is often its cause, and surgical removal being mandatory as well.

Fungal sinusitis is broken down into types. Here’s a blurb about each:

  • Allergic Fungal Sinusitis ~ an allergic reaction caused by fungalantigens
  • Granulomatous Invasive Fungal Sinusitis ~ very rare, primarily in North Africa & India
  • Chronic Indolent Sinusitis ~ an invasive form, can occur in those with healthy immune, generally found outside US
  • Mycetoma Fungal Sinusitis ~ produces a “fungal ball” within a sinus cavity, it’s noninvasive, causes little inflammation & you’ll likely experience sinus discomfort
  • Fulminant Sinusitis ~ usually seen in immunocompromisedfolks, an aggressive candidiasis, aspergillosis, histoplasmosisor mucormycosis fungal infection, can cause extensive skull bone destruction

Fungal sinusitis is rare, and the most common type is allergic fungal sinusitis. This fungal sinus infection causes symptoms similar tobacterial sinusitis, such as:

Antibiotics will do nothing to quell these symptoms if your nasal infection is caused by a fungus.

A couple of health conditions that put you at an increased risk for fungal sinusitis are:

If you go through repeated bouts of sinusitis, ask your health care specialist to consider if your cause is fungal.

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