Image-guided sphenoidotomy in revision functional endoscopic sinus surgery

The application of image-guided systems to sinus surgery is gaining in popularity. This study tried to evaluate the efficacy of image-guided surgery (IGS) in the fenestration of the sphenoid sinus in patients with chronic rhinosinusitis (CRS) who received revision functional endoscopic sinus surgery (FESS). A total of 51 CRS patients who received revision FESS incorporating IGS between January 2010 and August 2011 by two surgeons were enrolled in this study. A group of 30 CRS patients who underwent revision FESS by the senior surgeon without incorporating IGS was chosen for comparison. The penetration rates for the sphenoid sinus were 91.2% when performed by the senior surgeon with IGS and 91.3% when done by the other surgeon with IGS. The penetration rate for the sphenoid sinus was 68.6% for revision FESS without IGS. The fenestration rate for the sphenoid sinus in revision FESS without IGS was significantly lower than that in revision FESS with IGS (p = .004). Our results showed that IGS was a beneficial procedure for opening the sphenoid sinus in the revision cases.