Extending borders

Abstract

The last 20 years of the last century, that sounds long ago but was actually the time that many of us already practiced in Rhinology or received their training, was I think the time of endoscopic sinus surgery. We learned all the possibilities of the endoscope, first mainly in limited inflammatory disease but later also because of the development of new technical possibilities like debriders, lens cleaners and probably most important curved drills more extensive surgery (1-4). Since the beginning of the 21ste century it is the time of endoscopic treatment of skull base tumours. In 2010 this Journal already produced an extensive overview in the European position paper on endoscopic management of tumours of the nose, paranasal sinuses and skull base (5). In the mean time a number of papers on skull base surgery has been published in Rhinology (3, 6-11). With the rhinologist involvement in more and more complex benign and malignant sinus and skull base tumours we became part of endoscopic skull base teams.