Abstract
Objectives
The infraorbital canal (IOC), which runs in the roof of the maxillary sinus, is a useful anatomical landmark for the infraorbital nerve (ION) on computed tomography (CT) images. Enlargement of the IOC on CT images is thought to be a pathological state that usually affects the ION. However, we have frequently observed enlargement of the IOC in patients with a history of radical surgery of the maxillary sinus: so-called Caldwell–Luc (CL) surgery. In this study, the size of the IOC of the maxillary sinus was compared between patients with a history of CL surgery (post-CL IOCs) and those with no history of CL surgery (control IOCs).
Methods
A total of 347 consecutive patients who underwent facial CT from January 2014 to October 2014 for various indications were evaluated. After excluding groove-type IOCs and IOCs with pathological lesions that could affect their diameters, 47 post-CL IOCs in 26 patients were finally compared with 504 control IOCs in 252 patients. To evaluate IOC size, the short-axis diameter of the IOC was measured on a reconstructed coronal image at the level of the posterior pole of the eyeball.
Results
The short-axis diameters of the post-CL IOCs and control IOCs were 3.0 ± 0.6 and 1.4 ± 0.3 mm, respectively (p < 0.005).
Conclusions
The short-axis diameters of post-CL IOCs are significantly enlarged (approximately double the diameter) compared to those of control IOCs.
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We declare that all human and animal studies have been approved by the Ethics Committee of the Kindai University Faculty of Medicine and have therefore been performed in accordance with the ethical standards laid down in the 1964 Declaration of Helsinki and its later amendments.
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Fukui, H., Kashiwagi, N., Murakami, T. et al. Enlargement of the infraorbital canal following Caldwell–Luc surgery. Jpn J Radiol 35, 532–538 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11604-017-0663-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11604-017-0663-6