抄録
Most otolaryngologists in Japan hold the view that cases of chronic sinusitis necessitating surgical treatment have decreased in recent years. For elucidating the trend of the sinusitis from the past up to the present time, we have investigated the yearly changes of this disease and nasal allergy from 1940 to 1981, based on the medical charts in the ENT clinic of Hokkaido University Hospital. It was revealed that chronic sinusitis accounted for 21.4% of all outpatients in the early 1940's. This percentage was reduced by half by 1965 and thereafter remained almost unchanged. On the other hand, nasal allergy was markedly increased after 1965. There were remarkable changes in the age distribution of the sinusitis patient in the past 40 years; From 1940 to 1958, the younger generations of 2nd and 3rd decades accounted for about two third of all sinusitis patients. However, the proportion of sinusitis patients of those age groups rapidly declined after 1965 and now the patients are distributed evenly among all age-groups. The factors responsible for the decrease of sinusitis are discussed.
