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Relationship between sphenoid sinus volume and protrusion of internal carotid artery and optic nerve: a 3D segmentation study on maxillofacial CT-scans

Surgical and Radiologic Anatomy volume 41, pages 507–512 (2019)Cite this article

Abstract

Purpose

Anatomy of sphenoid sinuses has acquired a growing importance with the diffusion of transsphenoidal surgical procedures. A common risk in these practices is the damage of internal carotid artery (ICA) and optic nerve (ON), which may protrude into the sphenoid air cavities. This study aims at analysing the relationships between sphenoid sinuses volume and protrusion of ICA and ON.

Methods

260 head CT-scans were retrospectively analysed (equally divided among males and females, age range 20–92 years). Volume was segmented through ITK-SNAP software. In addition, the subjects were classified into four groups: no protrusion of any structure (group 1), protrusion of ICA (group 2), protrusion of ON (group 3), protrusion of both ICA and ON (group 4). Possible statistically significant differences in prevalence of the four groups according to gender were assessed through Chi-squared test (p < 0.05). Differences in volume between the four groups were assessed through one-way ANOVA test (p < 0.05), separately for males and females.

Results

Group 1 was the most frequent (40.0%), followed by group 4 (27.7%) and group 2 (18.5%), without any difference according to gender. For what concerns volume, cases of ICA and concomitant ICA + ON protrusion had significantly larger sinuses, whereas isolated ON protrusion did not modify sinus volume.

Conclusions

Results show that protrusion of ICA is positively related with the volume of sphenoid sinuses, whereas the same relation was not verified for ON: surgeons should accurately consider possible ON protrusion in each case, as it may occur independently from sphenoid sinuses volume.

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Affiliations

  1. Dipartimento di Scienze Biomediche per la Salute, Università degli Studi di Milano, Via Mangiagalli 31, 20133, Milan, Italy

    Daniele Gibelli, Annalisa Cappella, Claudia Dolci & Chiarella Sforza

  2. Reparto di Radiologia, Ospedale Fatebenefratelli, ASST Fatebenefratelli Sacco, Milan, Italy

    Michaela Cellina & Antonio Giancarlo Oliva

  3. Reparto di Otorinolaringoiatria, Ospedale Fatebenefratelli, ASST Fatebenefratelli Sacco, Milan, Italy

    Stefano Gibelli & Giovanni Termine

Authors
  1. Daniele Gibelli
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  2. Michaela Cellina
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  3. Stefano Gibelli
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  4. Annalisa Cappella
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  5. Antonio Giancarlo Oliva
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  6. Giovanni Termine
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  7. Claudia Dolci
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  8. Chiarella Sforza
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Contributions

DG: Project development, data collection, data analysis, manuscript writing, manuscript editing. MC: Project development, manuscript writing, manuscript editing. SG: Project development, manuscript writing, manuscript editing. AC: Data collection, data analysis, manuscript writing, manuscript editing. AGO: Data analysis, manuscript writing, manuscript editing. GT: Data analysis, manuscript writing, manuscript editing. CD: Data analysis, manuscript writing, manuscript editing. CS: Project development, data analysis, manuscript editing.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Daniele Gibelli.

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Gibelli, D., Cellina, M., Gibelli, S. et al. Relationship between sphenoid sinus volume and protrusion of internal carotid artery and optic nerve: a 3D segmentation study on maxillofacial CT-scans. Surg Radiol Anat 41, 507–512 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00276-019-02207-w

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00276-019-02207-w

Keywords

  • Sphenoid sinus
  • Internal carotid artery
  • Optic nerve
  • CT-scan
  • 3D segmentation