Bacteriology of the maxillary and ethmoid sinuses in chronic sinusitis

The bacteriology of chronic sinusitis was studied by using swab and mucosal specimens from both the maxillary and ethmoid sinuses. The specimens of the maxillary sinus were taken through translabial antroscopy. The specimens of the ethmoid sinus were taken after removing the ethmoid bulla during functional endoscopic sinus surgery (FESS). Eighty-six samples of each type of specimen were collected. Among the maxillary sinus samples, the culture rate was 60.5 per cent from the swab specimens and 36 per cent from the mucosal specimens. Among the ethmoid sinus samples, the culture rate was 58.1 per cent from the swab specimens and 75.6 per cent from the mucosal. The p-value by the Chi-Square test is higher than 0.01 (p = 0.015). As there were more isolates of Staphylococcus epidermidis from the mucosal specimens, they are not a better choice of specimen for sampling the ethmoid sinus than a swab specimen.