Is There Any Racial Difference in Term of Anatomical Variations of Nasal and Paranasal Sinus Structures

The aim of our study was to determine the anatomical variations detected on computed tomography radiological imaging of the paranasal sinus between citizens and refugees patient groups and to reveal the differences between the two patient groups. In this study, the data from the files of 38 Turkish Citizens (Group 1), 41 Syrian Refugees (Group 2), a total of 79 patients who were admitted to the ENT Clinic of Adana City Training and Research Hospital due to rhinological complaints between 01.01.2019 and 01.01.2020 and had paranasal sinus tomography, were analyzed retrospectively. Due to the Syrian Civil War that started in 2011, more than 10 million Syrian have left their countries and immigrated to neighboring countries as refugees. The paranasal sinus area has a wide variety of variations. Congenital anomalies and normal anatomical variations in this area are important, although rarely, as they may have pathological consequences or may be a source of difficulty during surgery. In the study, 38 of 79 patients were in Group 1 (48.1%) and 41 were in Group 2 (51.9%). Of the patients, 30 were female (38%) and 49 were male (62%). The ages of the patients ranged from 9 to 78 years, with a mean age of 32.52 years. In our study, we could not find a statistically significant difference between Turkish Citizens and Syrian refugees in terms of anatomical variations detected on paranasal radiological imaging. We consider the number of patients in our study as a limitation of our study and we think that it is important to conduct studies with larger populations.