Publication:

A prospective study of the prevalence of Kuhn’s frontal cells and their relation to frontal sinus disease

Background The involvement of frontal cells in the frontal sinus disease pathology remains an understudied area. There are very few reports on the prevalence of frontal recess cells in India. In this context the present study was designed to determine the frequency of occurrence of Kuhn frontal cells and to determine whether the size of the frontal isthmus or the presence of frontal cells is related to the presence of frontal sinus disease.

Methods This study included 80 patients who presented with signs and symptoms of chronic rhino-sinusitis after satisfying the inclusion criteria to the Department of ENT in a tertiary care centre (Mahatma Gandhi Medical College and Research Institute) in Pondicherry from January 2017 to April 2018. The patients were subjected to detailed clinical history, basic preoperative blood investigations, diagnostic nasal endoscopy and High Resolution Computed Tomography of nose and para-nasal sinuses after which the diagnosis was established.

Results Out of the 80 study participants subjected to our study the number of individuals who had frontal sinusitis was 50%. The association between frontal sinusitis and Kuhn cells was insignificant. The mean value of anteroposterior diameter of the naso-frontal isthmus in case of patients with and without frontal sinusitis was 0.705-0.735. In case of transverse diameter it was 0.725-0.720 and in case of the area of the frontal isthmus it was 30.86-31.12 which had a p value of 0.49Conclusions: Therefore in our study we concluded that there is no significant relation for any particular frontal recess cell or the size of the nasofrontal isthmus for being the sole cause for chronic frontal sinusitis.