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Anatomical variants of sphenoid sinuses pneumatisation: a CT scan study on a Northern Italian population

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Abstract

Sphenoid bone may be affected by different variants of pneumatisation, which have a relevant importance from a clinical and surgical point of view. The description of such variants in different populations may give useful information. However, few articles describe the variability of sphenoid pneumatised structures and none of them focuses on Northern Italian population. Variants of pneumatisation of sphenoid bone were described in a sample of 300 Northern Italian patients who underwent a CT scan. More than fifty-seven percent of patients showed a form of anatomical variant: the most common form was the pneumatised pterygoid processes (39.6%), followed by dorsum sellae (32.9%) and clinoid processes (20.3%), without statistically significant differences between males and females (p > 0.01). In 26.3% of patients, a combined pneumatisation of these three structures was observed, being the combination pterygoid processes-dorsum sellae the most frequent (11.3%). In 9.3%, all the three sphenoid structures were affected. This article is the first description of the prevalence of different variants of pneumatisation in a Northern Italian population: the occurrence of such forms has to be acknowledged for their possible clinical and surgical consequences.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Dipartimento di Scienze Biomediche per la Salute, Università degli Studi di Milano, V. Mangiagalli 31, Milan, Italy

    Daniele Gibelli & Chiarella Sforza

  2. Reparto di Radiologia, Ospedale Fatebenefratelli, ASST Fatebenefratelli Sacco, Milan, Italy

    Michaela Cellina & Antonio Giancarlo Oliva

  3. Reparto di Otorinolaringoiatria, Ospedale Fatebenefratelli, ASST Fatebenefratelli Sacco, Milan, Italy

    Stefano Gibelli & Giovanni Termine

Authors
  1. Daniele Gibelli
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  2. Michaela Cellina
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  3. Stefano Gibelli
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  4. Antonio Giancarlo Oliva
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  5. Giovanni Termine
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  6. Chiarella Sforza
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Correspondence to Daniele Gibelli.

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All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. All radiological examinations were previously anonymized.

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Gibelli, D., Cellina, M., Gibelli, S. et al. Anatomical variants of sphenoid sinuses pneumatisation: a CT scan study on a Northern Italian population. Radiol med 122, 575–580 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11547-017-0759-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11547-017-0759-1

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