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Clinically relevant morphometric analysis of pterygopalatine fossa and its volumetric relationship with adjacent paranasal sinuses: a CT-based study

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Abstract

Objectives

This study aimed to perform morphometric measurements of the pterygopalatine fossa (PPF), the transition zone to critical neurovascular structures. The second aim was to investigate the relationship between the volumes of the PPF and the paranasal sinuses and the effect of nasal septum deviation (NSD) types on all these measurements.

Methods

We performed PPF’s morphometry and all volume measurements on the CT images of 260 patients (130 male and 130 female, age range 18–79).

Results

All volumetric measurements and the angle between foramen rotundum (FR) and pterygomaxillary fissure (PMF) were significantly higher in males than females. In contrast, the distance between sphenopalatine foramen (SPF) and PMF was considerably higher in females than in males. The PPF volume, the distance between the pterygoid canal (PC) and maxillary sinus, and the angle between FR and PMF were significantly higher on the right side than on the left. In contrast, the angle between PC and SPF and between greater palatine canal and PPF were considerably higher on the left side than on the right. The angle between PC and SPF decreased markedly with age. Only sphenoidal sinus volume was significantly smaller on the same side as the septal deviation. There was no correlation between PPF volume with maxillary and sphenoid sinus volumes from adjacent paranasal sinuses.

Conclusions

Volumetric and morphometric data obtained from PPF and paranasal sinuses can aid clinicians in diagnosing and treating patients by guiding them in selecting the right surgical approach or tools, especially in endoscopic procedures.

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Data availability

The data sets used and analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

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Funding

This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Anatomy, Faculty of Medicine, Necmettin Erbakan University, Meram, Konya, Turkey

    Betül Digilli Ayaş, Aynur Emine Çiçekcibaşı, Ahmet Safa Gökşan & Gülay Açar

  2. Department of Radiology, Faculty of Medicine, Necmettin Erbakan University, Meram, Konya, Turkey

    Demet Aydoğdu

Authors
  1. Betül Digilli Ayaş
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  3. Ahmet Safa Gökşan
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Contributions

BDA, ASG, GA: Conceptualization, Methodology, Software. BDA, AEÇ, DA: Data curation, Writing—Original draft preparation. BDA, AEÇ, GA: Visualization, Investigation. AEÇ, GA: Supervision. ASG, GA, DA: Software, Validation. BDA, AEÇ, GA: Writing—Reviewing and Editing.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Betül Digilli Ayaş.

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Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Ethics approval

Necmettin Erbakan University Meram Faculty of Medicine institutional ethics review board approved the present study (Approval protocol number: 2021/3268).

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This article does not contain any studies with human or animal subjects performed by the any of the authors.

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Digilli Ayaş, B., Çiçekcibaşı, A.E., Gökşan, A.S. et al. Clinically relevant morphometric analysis of pterygopalatine fossa and its volumetric relationship with adjacent paranasal sinuses: a CT-based study. Oral Radiol 40, 285–294 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11282-023-00735-1

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