Transient positioning of a silicone T tube in frontal sinus surgery.

We applied transient positioning of a silicone T tube in 18 patients with frontal sinus cysts. Inflammation in the nasal cavity usually subsided within 6 months of surgery, whereas the frontal sinus showed pathologic changes in more than half of the patients even 6 months after surgery. After removal of the tube, the nasofrontal passage remained open in 16 patients who obtained good aeration with an intact mucosal lining in the frontal sinus, but it eventually closed in the remaining 2 patients who failed to obtain good aeration. This finding suggests that persistent inflammation in the frontal sinus encourages the closure of the nasofrontal passage and that transient positioning of a silicone T tube is successful if it is removed after subsidence of inflammation in the sinonasal tract.