Surgical causes of failure in endoscopic sinus surgery.

Abstract

Evaluate causes of surgical failure at time of revision endoscopic sinus surgery. Prospective review of 682 cases that had endoscopic sinus surgery performed between 1991 and 1995. In all cases, variables of age, sex, asthma, allergy, computed tomography stage, associated procedures, complications, and operative findings were collected. Those cases that had a failure after a previous endoscopic sinus procedure and not an intranasal procedure or an external procedure were evaluated. Fifty-two patients (7.6%) were identified. The age range was 24 to 70 years. The most common cause of failure was residual air cells and adhesions in the ethmoid area (30.7%), followed by maxillary sinus ostium stenosis in 27%, frontal sinus ostium stenosis in 25%, and a separate maxillary sinus ostium stenosis in 15% of the cases. Review of surgical causes of failure in endoscopic sinus surgery patients revealed that residual air cells and stenotic maxillary or frontal sinus ostium were the most common causes of failures.