Clinical Significance of Anatomical Variations in Ostiomeatal Complex As Detected By MDCT

Infections involving paranasal sinuses and nasal cavities is one of the common public health problem in all age groups. Functional endoscopic sinus surgery has revolutionized in the treatment of sinusitis. MDCT has been the most ideal investigation in the assessment of paranasal sinuses especially in the identification of various anatomical variations that predispose to development of sinus infection. The present study was done to detect the presence of significant anatomical variations in the ostiomeatal complex, the main drainage point of sinus in 300 symptomatic patients. Keywordsostiomeatal complex, anatomical variations, sinusitis Introduction OMC is the most important drainage route for the paranasal sinuses in the skull of which the anterior OMC is the major draining ostia, as it drains the maxillary sinus, frontal sinus, anterior part of ethmoidal sinus whereas posterior OMC drains posterior part of ethmoid and sphenoid sinus. The components that form OMC are maxillary ostium, ethmoidal infundibulum, anterior ethmoidal air cells, frontal recess. Various anatomical variations in the development of these structures critically Introduction affect the drainage of sinuses resulting in recurrent sinus infections. Besides the OMC other structures that form the lateral wall of nasal cavity also aid in the development of sinusitis. The major anatomical variations that predispose to development of sinus infections are uncinate process anomalies, pneumatization/concha, haller air cell expansion and giant ethmoidal bulla. Materials and Methods A retrospective analysis of the coronal CT scan images of paranasal sinus was done in 300 patients who are referred with clinical diagnosis of sinus disease. CT scan was performed on 16 slice MDCT Evanto 16 of semens ltd at 1mm thin coronal images. www.jmscr.igmpublication.org Impact Factor 5.244 Index Copernicus Value: 83.27 ISSN (e)-2347-176x ISSN (p) 2455-0450 DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.18535/jmscr/v4i8.67