Abstract
The postoperative processes in the ethmoid were studied histopathologically in patients with chronic ethmoiditis who had undergone ethmoidectomy once or more times prior to reoperation. Specimens of the regenerated tissue and of the primary mucosa were taken at the time of reoperation and studied in respects to lapse of time following operation and to the mutual relationship between the two tissues.
Regeneration of the ciliated epithelial cells of the regenerated tissue is observe das early as the 34th postoperative day and is completed at about the fifth month. After 5 months to one year, inflamatory changes such as cell infiltration and edema in the regenerated tissue are most frequently found especially in parallel withthe grade of inflammation in the primary mucous membrane of the ethmoid cells. The severer the pathologic changes in the primary mucous membrane, the greater is the cell infiltration in the regenerated tissue together with less proliferation of the connective tissue. It is considered that the resistance of the tissue is at its lowest at the fifth postoperative month when the regenerations of the mucous membrane has just been completed. After the first postoperative year, inflammatory changes become less significant, the proliferated connective tissue becomes dense and thin and the resistance of the tissue increases.
