Plain radiographic pattern of chronic sinusitis in Port Harcourt: our recent experience

Abstract

Chronic sinusitis is a globally common disease found in otolaryngology practice. Whereas, provisional 
diagnosis could be on the basis of clinical history and physical examination, radiology and sinus 
endoscopy are necessary in making definitive diagnosis and management protocol. Plain radiography is 
the mainstay of radiological diagnosis in most developing countries because it is cheap, simple and widely 
available. This study therefore established plain radiographic pattern of chronic sinusitis and highlighted 
our recent experience with these radiographs in the management of chronic sinusitis in our setting. A 
prospective study of radiographs of 120 patients with chronic sinusitis was carried out between May 2011 
to March 2012 in Ear, Nose and Throat clinic of the University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital (UPTH). 
The patients’ bio-data (age, gender), clinical features and plain radiographic findings were collected and 
entered into a proforma. The data was entered into the version 16 of the Statistical package for social 
sciences (SPSS16). Simple descriptive statistics in the form of mean, frequency distribution tables and 
percentages were used to illustrate the data. Out of the 120 patients, 70 (58%) were males and 50 (41.7%) 
were females giving a male to female ratio of 1.4:1. Age range was 1-75 years with average age of 39.1 
years. The radiographic abnormalities are haziness or cloudiness, complete opacification, air-fluid level and 
muco-periosteal thickening. Eighty radiographs (66.7%) demonstrated abnormality in one or both maxillary 
sinuses; 41 (34.2%) in the ethmoid; 15 (12.5%) in the frontal and 2 (1.7%) in the sphenoidal sinus. The 
maxillary sinus was mostly involved in the disease process of chronic sinusitis. Besides, chronic sinusitis 
was found to be commoner in the young adults. However, plain radiographs of the paranasal sinuses are 
still useful in the management of chronic sinusitis despite its shortcomings in our setting.