Role of Osteoplastic Frontal Sinus Obliteration in the Era of Endoscopic Sinus Surgery

Objective . Determining the indications for osteoplastic frontal sinus obliteration (OFSO) for the treatment of inflammatory frontal sinus disease. Study Design . Retrospective case series from a single tertiary care facility. Methods . Thirty-four patients who underwent OFSO for chronic frontal sinusitis ( n = 23) and frontal sinus mucocele ( n = 11) comprised our study group. Data reviewed included demographics, history of prior frontal sinus operation(s), imaging, diagnosis, and operative complications. Results . The age range was 19 to 76 years. Seventy percent of patients with chronic frontal sinusitis underwent OFSO as a salvage surgery after previous frontal sinus surgery failures, while 30% underwent OFSO as a primary surgery. For those in whom OFSO was a salvage procedure, the failed surgeries were endoscopic approaches to the frontal sinus (69%), Lynch procedure (12%), and OFSO outside this study period (19%). For patients with frontal sinus mucocele, 72% had OFSO as a first-line surgery. Within the total study population, 15% of patients presented for OFSO with history of prior obliteration, with a range of 3 to 30 years between representations. Conclusions . Osteoplastic frontal sinus obliteration remains a key surgical treatment for chronic inflammatory frontal sinus disease both as a salvage procedure and first-line surgical therapy.