A computed tomography method for studying the degree of postoperative aeration of maxillary sinuses

Most patients with chronic odontogenic sinusitis experience aeration problems which remain unresolved even after classic radical antrotomy has been performed. The aim of this study was to create a high-yield diagnostically feasible and accurate CT technique which would allow the evaluation of the degree of postoperative changes of maxillary sinus aeration and overcome the limited value of traditional imaging modalities. We studied the aeration sequelae in the maxillary sinus following antrotomy in thirty-five patients employing Sytec 3000 CT scan equipment with modern densoprofile software. We found a prevalence of 62.92% for minor complications following antrotomy--a reduction in the volume of the maxillary sinus up to 25%, whereas the more serious complications accounted for 5.72%. Conventional radiologic modalities demonstrated only 25% of these changes. Our results underscore the importance of the densoprofile CT technique as a valuable and accurate diagnostic tool in detecting the changes consistent with the postantrotomy syndrome.