A Case of a Foreign Body in the Maxillary Sinus

Abstract

The authors reported a case of a foreign body in the left maxillary sinus. An 8-year-old girl with swelling of the left cheek visited Mie University Hospital on December 19, 1979. Fifteen days earlier, the patient had received an accidental injury which was the puncture of the nasal vestibulum by a bit of dry grass on the playground. After removal of a small piece of dry grass, treatment was given with antibiotics for two weeks but her condition did not improve.Probe operation of the maxillary sinus with a labiogingival incision was carried out three days later. A stick of dry grass, which was 6cm in length and 8mm in diameter, was found in the maxillary sinus with a large defect in the upper part of the fossa canina. It was thought that the stick of dry grass was stuck in the anterior wall of the maxillary sinus, having entered from the nasal vestibulum through the buccal soft tissue. The shape of the grass was presumably that of a tall golden rod.