Morphological Analysis using Simple Skull AP of Frontal Sinus in Korea

Abstract

Objective: Although occasionally studied, the frontal sinuses always have been poorly understood both in their function and variation. It is the purpose of this study to investigate the range of variation in frontal sinus morphology. Methods: From January to December 2003, we analized 100 patients with mild head injury. The classification system of sinus was proposed, based on the area size, the bilateral asymmetry, the superiority of side, the outline of upper borders, the partial septa and the supraorbital cells. The frontal sinus patterns could be divided by combining the class numbers in each classification items described above. The frontal sinus patterns was formulated as a code number which was determined by arranging the class numbers in each classification items as serial numbers. Results: There were 64 men and 36 women with a mean age of 56.94±16.85 (19~83) years. The mean area of frontal sinus was 13.97±6.41 cm. Although the mean value of frontal sinus area for males and left side tended to be larger than that for females and right one, the differences between both sexes and sides were not significant. All patients were classified according to the present identification system based on the code number of frontal sinus pattern. Conclusions: The authers are confident that this classification system of the frontal sinus pattern can allow one to characterize each person and may help physicians investigate anatomical relationship with severity of head trauma.