The evaluation of the prevalence and localizations and of antral septa in people living in and around Diyarbakir using cone beam computed tomography

Abstract

Background: Anatomic variations of the maxillary sinuses affect the success of maxillary sinus operations. The aim of this study is to evaluate the prevalence and localizations of antral septa in patients living in and around Diyarbakır/Turkey using cone beam computed tomography (CBCT) images of the maxillary sinuses of these patients. Materials and Methods: This study was conducted using 692 CBCT reports obtained from patients. The antral septa identified on CBCT were separated into three regions based on their localizations. The region from the mesial to the distal of the 2nd premolar tooth was defined as the anterior region, the region from the distal of the 2nd premolar tooth to the distal of the 2nd molar tooth was defined as the medial region, and the region after the distal of the 2nd molar tooth was defined as the posterior region. Results: A total of 148 antral septa were observed in a total of 119 patients. Based on the number of patients, antral septa were detected in approximately 22% of the patients. The maxillary sinuses, in which antral septa were observed constituted 13.7% of the total examined healthy sinus. Of the detected antral septa, 17 were in the anterior region, 26 were in the posterior region, and 105 were in the medial region. Statistical analysis revealed that there was no statistically significant difference between the prevalence and localization of the antral septa in the left and right maxillary sinuses. Conclusions: The results obtained in our study indicate that the prevalence of antral septa is high that antral septa can be found in approximately one out of five people living in our region. For this reason, the anatomy of the region should be evaluated extensively with imaging.

Keywords

• Antral septa
• cone beam computed tomography
• maxillary sinus