Association between anatomical variants of the osteomeatal complex and inflammatory sinus pathology: case-control study

Abstract

Introduction: Sinonasal anatomical variants can be a frequent cause of chronic in- fections, so it is important to identify them in daily practice. Objective: To determine the association between the anatomical variants of the osteomeatal complex (OCM) and the development of sinonasal inflammatory pathologies. Materials and methods: Case-control study, a sample of 226 patients is analyzed identifying the anatomical variants of OCM in computed tomography of the paranasal sinuses and their clinical correlation. Results: 51.9% presented imaging findings indicative of sinonasal in- flammatory disease, 19.8% reported symptoms suggestive of sinusitis in the clinical history. The most affected paranasal sinuses were: maxillary (46.9%) and ethmoid (23%). The most frequent anatomical variants were Agger Nasi cells (50.2%) and septal deviation (46.2%). The lateral insertion of the uncinate process (p=0.015) was a statistically significant variable, more frequent on the left side (p=0.018, odds ratio [OR]=4.078, 95% confidence interval [CI]=1.3-12.6). Discussion: The incidence of the most frequent anatomical variants in the literature was confirmed, however not correlated with the clinical findings for the series of patients studied in comparison with other studies. There is a high relationship between the lateral insertion of the uncinate process and rhinosinusitis findings that are scarcely documented in the medical literature. Conclusion: More studies are required on predictive models in larger population samples and tomographic reading protocols focused on different anatomical variants of the uncinate process.