Anatomical variants of sphenoid sinuses pneumatisation: a CT scan study on a Northern Italian population

Abstract

Sphenoid bone may be affected by different variants of pneumatisation, which have a relevant importance from a clinical and surgical point of view. The description of such variants in different populations may give useful information. However, few articles describe the variability of sphenoid pneumatised structures and none of them focuses on Northern Italian population. Variants of pneumatisation of sphenoid bone were described in a sample of 300 Northern Italian patients who underwent a CT scan. More than fifty-seven percent of patients showed a form of anatomical variant: the most common form was the pneumatised pterygoid processes (39.6%), followed by dorsum sellae (32.9%) and clinoid processes (20.3%), without statistically significant differences between males and females (p > 0.01). In 26.3% of patients, a combined pneumatisation of these three structures was observed, being the combination pterygoid processes-dorsum sellae the most frequent (11.3%). In 9.3%, all the three sphenoid structures were affected. This article is the first description of the prevalence of different variants of pneumatisation in a Northern Italian population: the occurrence of such forms has to be acknowledged for their possible clinical and surgical consequences.

Assessment of variations in sphenoid sinus pneumatization in Indian population: A multidetector computed tomography study

“…[ 8 9 ] The assessment of variations in pneumatization of SS is essential, yet there is lack of an in-depth study in the Indian population, while the prevalence has been well reported in different ethnic populations. [ 10 11 12 13 ]…”

Assessment of Sinonasal Anatomical Variants using 128-Slice MDCT in Patients with Chronic Rhinosinusitis

“…This is similar to the study conducted by Surapaneni H et al 20 which had reported the incidence of male candidates affected to be 60% and females 40%. Most of the previous studies performed by vinodhini P 21 , Dua et al 22 , Iseh et al 23 , Gibelli D et al 1 , had showed male preponderance with 66%, 57.5%, 52% and 63% respectively. Surapaneni H et al 20 had demonstrated that the age or gender does not play any significance for causing chronic rhinosinusitis especially with upper respiratory tract infection.…”

“…The paranasal sinuses include maxillary, ethmoid, frontal and sphenoid sinuses. 1,2 The main functions of paranasal sinuses include lightening of skull, air humidification and voice resonance. [3][4][5] There are various imaging modalities available for the evaluation of the paranasal sinuses.…”

Anatomical variations of sphenoid sinus pneumatisation in Vojvodina's population

“…Širenje sinusa u okolne delove klinaste kosti je veoma često i istovremeno pokazuje veliku raznolikost, te se klinasti sinus smatra jednom od najvarijabilnijih struktura ljudskog organizma (5). Izučavanje varijacija pneumatizacije klinastog sinusa je od velikog hirurškog i uopšte kliničkog značaja, kako zbog bliskog odnosa sinusa sa krucijalnim neurovaskularnim strukturama, tako i zbog napretka funkcionalne endoskopske hirurgije sinusa.…”

“…Izučavanje varijacija pneumatizacije klinastog sinusa je od velikog hirurškog i uopšte kliničkog značaja, kako zbog bliskog odnosa sinusa sa krucijalnim neurovaskularnim strukturama, tako i zbog napretka funkcionalne endoskopske hirurgije sinusa. Klinasti sinus predstavlja put za endoskopski transsfenoidalni pristup hipofizi, te je to takođe polje u kome poznavanje ekstenzija klinastog sinusa nalazi svoju primenu (4)(5)(6). Moguće je i da pneumatizovane strukture doprinose povećanju rizika za pojavu hroničnog sinuzitisa, tokom koga okolni sudovi i živci mogu biti izloženi oboljenjima kao što su neuralgija trigeminalnog nerva, problem sa vidom i slično (5).…”