Key points
• Allergic fungal rhinosinusitis (AFRS) has clinical characteristics that are obviously different from chronic rhinosinusitis (CRS), with high recurrence rate and refractory, which is characterized by the presence of eosinophilic mucin with non-invasive fungal hyphae.
• The low detection rate of fungi leads to misdiagnosis of AFRS, resulting in non-standard treatment.
• There were more CRS patients with similar clinical manifestations in AFRS, but they couldn’t diagnosed as AFRS because of lack of etiological evidence.
• AFRS may lead to serious complications, including loss of smell, loss of vision, blindness, cranial nerve lesions, intracranial abscess or cavernous sinus syndrome.
• Patients with characteristics of clinical, radiology and immunological characteristics consistent with AFRS but without fungal etiology, Shall be treated according to the treatment principles of AFRS.