Can sinus headache occur without congestion? - Dr. Sreenivasa Murthy T M

Generally sinus headaches occur with congestion ,that is with nose block and sensation of cold. There are some conditions, wherein thy can also have sinus headaches without congestion, that is without the nose actually getting blocked or actually feeling cold. What I described is a vacuum headache, here there is a slight nasal obstruction and you sniff very loudly and there is a clog of your sinus happening and this that is within the sinuses they get absorbed into the mucosa and it creates a vacuum and it can cause some amount of headache. So has called as the vacuum headache. Sinus headaches can occur secondary to barotrauma. So that means trauma that is secondary to pressure changes. Pressure changes typically occur when we are not on earth, tat is deep sea diving or we are in a flight. So when a flight descends, there can be a phenomena of barotrauma occurring. There is a creation of negative pressure within the sinus. The sinus mucosa tends to gets pulled and it sets in an inflammatory reaction there and you can have a pain on the forehead or the cheek, which ever sinuses gets involved. The third subset of people who can have sinus type of headache without congestion in immunosuppressed patients is that in patients who have coexisting diseases like diabetes mellitus, chronic kidney disease, hepatitis B, retrovirus positive, people who are on immunosuppressive drugs like steroids or on chemotherapy for other conditions; So these kind of patients, they are more prone to get fungal infection. Fungal infection you may not necessarily see congestion inside the nose. They can have severe pain. Severe pain present over the region of the sinus and patient presents to us with coexisting comorbidities, then we will be very aggressive in our evaluation to rule out fungal sinusitis.

[bagyaaluthge]

Thanks doc, I have no congestion but my face and head are aching including the feeling heavy eyes!

[adrianeyre]

Thank you 🙏 Doctor. So the pain in my cheek is sinus because I do have yellow mucus . The strange thing is that it’s only on my left side? I’m confused Doc ?

[amkhanswat]

I have severe pain when take cold air. I have no congestion in my nostril. My nostrils remains open round the air. Some time i keep cotton in my nostril to block cold air to intake.

[recur]

Yes because I've got one right now recovered from cold no blocked nose but my head is killing me

[hoodlumtechnologist]

O have sinitus without congestion
I have had multiple blood tests and do not have any immune diseases.

[Black.Sabbath]

Can it be caused by changes in weather? I have a sinus headache right now, no congestion. Cold body, hot face.

[dumpsterfire]

Yes because im living proof as i write this!