A CT study of the course of growth of the maxillary sinus: normal subjects and subjects with chronic sinusitis.

We measured the maxillary sinus volume of normal children and those with bilateral chronic sinusitis by coronal CT scan of the paranasal sinus, and compared the results with findings previously obtained from adult patients. The distribution of mean maxillary sinus volume by age group from 4-9 to 70-79 years exhibited a monomodal pattern with a peak in the 20s in both the normal group and the surgical therapy group. The maxillary sinus volumes of children aged 10-15 years and adults tended to be smaller in the surgical therapy group than in the normal group; this tendency was more prominent in the adult group. These findings appear to support the hypothesis that the ethmoid infundibulum and middle meatus are narrowed by inflammation of the ostiomeatal complex and by various bony anatomic variations in the nasal cavity, leading to impaired pneumatization of the maxillary sinus.