The Differences in Paranasal Sinus Pneumatization after Adolescence in Korean / 대한이비인후과학회지

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: The embryological development of paranasal sinuses has been revealed by previous articles although few studies have reported on the differences of paranasal sinus pneumatization according to age after adolescence. We evaluated changes in paranasal sinus pneumatization in the ages ranging from 10s to over 60s. SUBJECTS AND METHOD: A retrospective review was carried out for patients who underwent osteomeatal unit three-dimensional computed tomography from January 2008 to March 2017. Two hundred and forty patients were selected and matched for age, sex, and existence of sinusitis. The biggest cross-sectional area (CSA) of each sinus was selected from each patient, which was then corrected to the size of the face. CSA and corrected CSA (cCSA) values were used together for analysis. RESULTS: CSAs of frontal, maxillary, sphenoid sinuses gradually increased in the ages ranging in the 30s, and then significantly decreased from those in the 40s onwards. In particular, these tendencies were statistically significant in all types of sinuses between the 30s and 40s, (p0.05). CSAs in patients with chronic sinusitis were not different from those in patients without chronic sinusitis in every sinus and all age groups (p>0.05). CONCLUSION: This study shows that older people have smaller sinuses, and sex difference and existence of sinusitis have no effect on the pneumatization of the sinuses.