Dear Dr. Roach: Several articles on the internet suggest that megadoses of vitamin C given intravenously can help in cases of severe sinus infection, for which we literally have no effective antibiotics, in order to treat them. Could this be true? — B.R.

Answer: I couldn’t find any high-quality research on intravenous vitamin C for sinus infections. However, there is some interesting research being done on vitamin C in severe sepsis, a physiological consequence of severe infection. In one study, the risk of dying from sepsis in people treated with vitamin C and steroids was 8 percent, compared with 40 percent in the control group. If confirmed, this would be a major advance for one of the biggest killers in the hospital. I am hopeful; however, I have seen other promising treatments for sepsis fail in large-scale studies.

For sinus infection in particular, if antibiotics aren’t effective, there is surgical treatment. However, many times the issue is that the wrong antibiotics inadvertently are used, and choosing the right antibiotic may require a procedure to identify the exact bacteria present in the sinuses. There are certainly times in the hospital when there are no effective antibiotics, but I personally haven’t seen that in sinus infections.

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