Anatomical Variations of the Nose and Paranasal Sinuses: A Computed Tomographic Study

To evaluate the anatomical variations in computed tomographic (CT) images of paranasal sinuses and to investigate association between them.

Retrospective study.

Tertiary care center in the southern part of India.

Radiological images of paranasal sinuses belonging to chronic rhinosinusitis patients managed between June 2016 and November 2018.

The studied characteristics in the CT images included the deviated nasal septum (DNS), concha bullosa (CB), Haller cell (HC), Onodi cell (OC), pneumatization of anterior clinoid process (ACP), pterygoid base (PB), superior turbinate, inferior turbinate, crista galli (CG), and nasal septum. The height of the lateral lamella of the cribriform plate, the sphenoid pneumatization pattern, and the optic nerve relationship with sphenoid sinus were studied separately. The associations between these factors, and with maxillary sinus opacifications were also investigated. A total of 151 adult patients' CT images were analyzed. The most common manifestations noted were DNS, CB and pneumatized PB, seen in 83.4%, 49% and 47% of the patients respectively. The rates of HC, OC, pneumatized septum, pneumatized CG, and pneumatized ACP were 39%, 23%, 27%, 43% and 27% in that order. Rates of most of these variations were within the range reported in the literature. Chi square test revealed that the OC was independently associated with pneumatized CG and pneumatized septum. The maxillary sinus opacification was related to DNS and CB, but not with protrusion of tooth root into the sinus. Most of the anatomical variations were comparable with the reports across the globe, however, the associations between these variations weren't common in our cohort.