Evaluation of polytomography and ultrasonography in maxillary sinus diseases

The diagnostic reliability of ultrasonography in clinical medicinehas been well established in various medical specialities such asneurology, cardiology, obestetrics , gynaecology , urology and inevaluation of abdominal organs. In the field of head and neck,ultrasonography has been. used in evaluation of thyroid masses ,carotid body tumors , laryngeal lesions , orbital lesions and other neckmasses. Many clinical series on the reliability of ultrasonography in thediagnosis of maxillary sinus diseases were published during the lasttwo decades.We believe that non-computerized tomography has beenneglected to some extent in the recent literature. Untill recently ,tomography was the definitive and the most sophisticated radiologicinvestigation for most sinus lesions after plain radiographs. It has beenreplaced almost entirely by computerized tomography (CT) with theadvantage of better discrimination of soft tissues, thin bony walls anddecalcifie bone structures.The ann of the present study is to assess the reliability ofultrasonography and tomography in the diagnosis of differentmaxillary sinus diseases in comparison with the exploration of thesinus either endoscopically or surgically.