An endoscopic and tomographic evaluation of patients with sinusitis after endoscopic sinus surgery and Caldwell-Luc operation: a comparative study.

To evaluate the outcome of surgery using objective methods in patients with sinusitis after endoscopic sinus surgery (ESS) and Caldwell-Luc operation, we randomly selected 37 Caldwell-Luc-operated and 40 ESS-applied cases. Selected patient groups were assessed and compared by endoscopic examination and computed tomography (CT). CT was found to be normal in 12% of Caldwell-Luc-operated sides in comparison to 75% of ESS-applied sides. Endoscopy revealed a patency rate of the windows as 48% in Caldwell-Luc-operated and 86.7% in ESS-applied sides. Fibrosis and abnormal bony changes of the maxillary sinus were encountered in more than half of Caldwell-Luc-operated cases. In conclusion, ESS has a much higher rate of cure compared to the Caldwell-Luc operation if subjective and objective evaluation methods (CT and endoscopy) are applied.