Operation for chronic frontal sinusitis.

Abstract

THE OPERATIVE treatment of chronic frontal sinusitis has given rise to much controversy among rhinologists. If one may judge from the many operations which have been devised, no single one of them is uniformly satisfactory. These operations range from the completely obliterative operation of the Riedel type at one end of the scale, to the simple drainage operation of the Howarth type at the other. Occupying the midposition we find the Killian operation and its modifications, making an effort at both obliteration and drainage. The obliterative type of operation cures the disease, but is ruled out of ordinary practice by the deformity it creates. The drainage type of operation produces no deformity, but leaves the disease still in situ, and is in fact frankly palliative, aiming at relieving the patient of his symptoms without eradicating the disease. Practically every writer on this subject emphasizes the necessity of preserving or enlarging