If you have headache for a long time, it does not necessarily imply a tumour in the brain. It may be something simpler - chronic sinusitis - a collection of pus in your sinuses, which can rectified by medication or, if need be, a simple surgical procedure.

This was revealed by the report of a research project undertaken at Dayanand Medical College Hospital on the ‘Endoscopic study of sinuses’, which was recently honoured with the Saraswati Verma Gold Medal.

The research was undertaken under the supervision of Dr Manish Munjal, professor, department of ENT, and took three years to complete.

Dr Sanjeev Puri, Dr Rakesh Kaushal and Dr Poonam Singh were the team members for the project.

Dr Munjal elaborated that the sinuses are hollow chambers surrounding the eyes and the nose and normally produce secretions that drain into the nose and then fall back into the throat from where they are swallowed. In cases of excess production of secretions or obstruction to normal drainage of secretions, there is a stagnation of secretions in the sinuses, leading to mild to excruciating headaches .

These headaches in medical terms are located on the forehead , back , top or sides of the head depending on which sinus is affected. Headaches worsen with position of head, time of the day and change of season.