鼻腔経由の鼻副鼻腔超音波診断法

抄録

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the usefulness of Intranasal ultrasonography.
Intranasal ultrasonography was used to identify the membranous part of the lateral nasal wall, the so called “fontanelle”, and the lamina papyracea. The type SSD 550 ultrasound system (ALOKA Company), which is designed for viewing small tubes and cavities, was employed. This system features a catheter-style radial probe, 6 French in diameter, which is designed to obtain 360 degree B-mode ultrasound images. Intranasal ultrasonography was performed under monitoring with nasal endoscopy on 32 patients who were examined previously by Computed Tomography (CT). The ultrasonography images were evaluated in comparison to CT findings of the nose. The ultrasound images observed intraoperatively in four out of the 32 patients were compared with the surgical findings.
The bone of the lateral nasal wall was revealed to be a high echo region and the fontanelle was consistently demonstrated to be a low echo region in all of the patients. Moreover, the area represented exclusively as a low echo region in the lateral nasal wall was confirmed to be the fontanelle by surgical methods in three of the patients. The lamina papyracea was revealed as a high echo region in three of the patients who's ethmoid sinus had been opened with sinus surgery.
Further development of an appropriate probe would make it possible to identify bone defects in any part of the lamina papyracea and the skull base using intraoperative intranasal ultrasonography, which may in turn prevent complications during endoscopic sinus surgery.