2017 Volume 77 Issue 1 Pages 68-73
Surgery to treat postoperative maxillary cysts includes the transmaxillary approach, based on radical surgery of the maxillary sinus, and the intranasal approach to open the cyst. Indications for intranasal surgery of postoperative maxillary cysts are recently increasing, and the intranasal approach is currently the first-line surgery for this condition. We performed a clinical case review of 54 postoperative maxillary cysts in 44 patients treated with endoscopic endonasal surgery at our department between January 2009 and October 2015. In 46 cysts in the 39 patients （84.8％） who could be followed for at least 6 months after surgery, the cyst was endoscopically confirmed to communicate with the nasal cavity. In patients who developed post-surgery narrowing or occlusion of the nasal cavity, the mean time for this narrowing/occlusion to occur after surgery was 6.7 weeks （2–9 weeks）. Nasal cavity wall properties had the most significant effect on narrowing/occlusion of the nasal cavity, since more patients with a bony nasal cavity wall had narrowing/occlusion than those with a membranous wall. Considering the minimal patient burden and the low recurrence rate of endoscopic endonasal surgery for the treatment of postoperative maxillary cysts, the indications for this surgery are likely to increase in the future. Accordingly, there is a need to develop new surgical devices and improve the operative procedures.
