Transient Positioning of a Silicone T Tube in Frontal Sinus Surgery

Abstract

We applied transient positioning of a silicone T tube in 18 patients with frontal sinus cysts. Inflammation in the nasal cavity usually subsided within 6 months of surgery, whereas the frontal sinus showed pathologic changes in more than half of the patients even 6 months after surgery. After removal of the tube, the nasofrontal passage remained open in 16 patients who obtained good aeration with an intact mucosal lining in the frontal sinus, but it eventually closed in the remaining 2 patients who failed to obtain good aeration. This finding suggests that persistent inflammation in the frontal sinus encourages the closure of the nasofrontal passage and that transient positioning of a silicone T tube is successful if it is removed after subsidence of inflammation in the sinonasal tract.

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Sessions

Alford

Stratton

Ainsworth

Shill

. Current concept of frontal sinus surgery: An appraisal of the osteoplastic flap-fat obliteration operation. Laryngoscope 1972; 82: 918–30.

Bordley

Bosley

. Mucoceles of the frontal sinus: Causes and treatment. Ann Otol Rhinol Laryngol 1973; 82: 696–702.

Barton

. Dacron prosthesis in frontal sinus surgery. Laryngoscope 1972; 82: 1799–805.

Wolfowitz

Solomon

. Mucoceles of the frontal and ethmoid sinuses. J Laryngol Otol 1972; 86: 79–82.

Baron

Dedo

Henry

. The mucoperiosteal flap and frontal sinus surgery. Laryngoscope 1973; 80: 1266–80.

Porto

Duvall

. Long-term results with nasofrontal duct reconstruction. Laryngoscope 1986; 96: 858–62.

Yamasoba

Kikuchi

. Intracranial complications resulting from frontal pyocele: Case presentation and review of experience in Japan. Head Neck 1993; 15: 450–4.

Montgomery

. Silicone tracheal T-tube. Ann Otol Rhinol Laryngol 1974; 83: 71–5.