It has been discussed that inflammatory conditions, mainly in the areas of the frontal, maxillary and sphenoid sinuses, are involved in the phenomenon of nasaoparanasal physallization. However, middle turbinate pneumatization, or physallization of the ethmoid sinus, has many unsolved clinical questions, including its causes.
On the other hand, the middle meatus, which has become the main area to be covered by sinus surgery following the development of conservative endoscopic sinus surgery, is the main route to the nasal sinus.
It seems very important, therefore, to acquire a full clinical understanding of middle turbinate pneumatization, which is closely related to the middle meatus.
The present survey has revealed the presence of middle turbinate pneumatization in 93 out of 500 cases selected at random. A large pneumatization, considered to be related to a morphological abnormality of the lateral wall of the paranasal sinus, was discovered in 33 cases (27.2%), and 12.3% of which showed a shadow in the pneumatization. These findings suggest the presence of infectious conditions, as well as morphological abnormalities in the paranasal sinus.
Consequently, in cases where abnormalities in the lateral wall of the nasal cavity are present, reconstruction of the latter comprising not only reconstruction of the septum, but also of middle turbinate pneumatization will play a very important role.
This paper reports the results of studies of the incidence, morphological classification and shadow of middle turbinate pneumatization, that is a morphological abnormality of the ethmoid turbinate, explains their clinical significance and describes methods of surgery.
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