[Sinusoscopy in stomatology. Review of a 5-year clinical experience]

Investigative sinus endoscopy for purely diagnostic purposes has become an important therapeutic tool for disorders of the paranasal system thanks to the enormous technological developments of the last twenty years.

In a retrospective study, sinus endoscopies carried out between 1990 and 1994 on 57 patients, mean age 43 years, were subjected to critical re-evaluation, with the aim of evaluating the efficacy of endoscopic treatment. In the first phase, the documentation available for each patient was examined; it included clinical data, preoperative traditional and CT radiographs, rhinoscopic and sinus endoscopic findings. Once the analysis of the available documentation had been completed the patients were recalled and subjected to clinical and radiological evaluation. Radiographic examination was carried out by traditional radiography.

CT scanning was only performed for those patients in whom the clinical findings indicated a possible relapse. Immediate and delayed complications occurring after the endoscopic sinus surgery were taken into consideration.

In conclusion, sinus endoscopy is a fundamental instrumental investigation in the diagnosis of rhinosinusopathies. It can no longer be considered as only a diagnostic investigation able to provide clear visual images, it also allows specimens to be taken for bacteriological, micological, cytological and histological analysis. Furthermore, endoscopic surgery can treat pathologies for which, until a few years ago, operations were necessary which respected the physiology of the paranasal system to a much lesser extent (Denker-Caldwell-Luc).