The role of conventional radiology inthe diagnosis of paranasal sinus Disease at Kenyatta National Hospital,Nairobi

Abstract

The roentgenic demonstration of paranasal sinus disease is often time consuming and expensive since it requires many examinations. This is especially true with respect to sinusitis. In this study, 208 patients with clinical features of paranasal sinus disease are analysed. About 90% had sinusitis, 78% of these having radiological changes in the maxillary sinuses. Included in this group were almost all patients with normal radiographs, but who clinically had evidence of sinusitis. The other conditions such as tumours, mucoceles and cysts were relatively rare. The radiological features of sinusitis, tumours, mucoceles and cysts in this study were straight forward. Therefore plain radiography could be easily used in their diagnosis. The clinical symptoms of paranasal sinus disease are largely nonspecific i.e. nasal blockage, headache and nasal discharge, with the exception of mucoceles where patients presented with a palpable frontal mass, expansion and erosion of sinus walls. Also, tumour patients, who only show radiographic evidence of disease late when the tumour is already widespread, had a longer symptom duration (months) compared to sinusitis (weeks).