Small and large middle meatus antrostomies in the treatment of chronic maxillary sinusitis.

OBJECTIVE: The study goal was to compare the postoperative endoscopic appearance of the middle meatus antrostomy with symptomatic relief in patients undergoing endoscopic endonasal sinus surgery for chronic maxillary sinusitis. STUDY DESIGN: We conducted a prospective randomized study encompassing 133 patients with chronic rhinogenic maxillary sinusitis who underwent endoscopic ethmoid surgery and middle meatal antrostomies. One of the tasks was to compare small-sized (less than 6 mm) antrostomies with large-sized (more than 16 mm) antrostomies in relieving the symptoms of chronic maxillary sinusitis. During follow-up an attempt was made to correlate endoscopic findings with symptomatic failure. RESULTS: We could not demonstrate a statistically significant correlation between the degree of improvement of the main sinusitis symptoms (obstruction, headache, and nasal discharge) and the postoperative size of the antrostomy. Nevertheless, persistent accessory maxillary ostia, scarring within the ethmoid were statistically significant predictors of poor surgical outcome. CONCLUSION: We conclude from this study that the size of the middle meatal antrostomy has no influence on the outcome of endonasal surgery for chronic rhinogenic maxillary sinusitis.