Pathologie ORL de l’enfant : quand penser à l’allergie ?

Abstract

The diagnosis of a rhinitis in children older than 7 years is usually easy. The task is more difficult in younger children with ENT inflammatory diseases since a lot of risk factors may coexist. Allergy should be suspected in cases of chronic rhinosinusitis, in cases of persistent chronic otitis media and in cases of recurrent croup or persistent vocal fold nodules. The challenge is to clearly identify the role of allergy among numerous others parameters (as GERD, smoking exposure, adenoid hypertrophy for example). Collaboration between ENT, allergists and pediatricians is helpful in order to determine the best treatment to be proposed to the child.