Surgery of the paranasal sinuses of horses

Abstract

SummaryThe paranasal sinuses of horses can be exposed through an osteoplastic flap to determine the cause of clinical signs of disease referable to the paranasal sinuses, such as facial deformity or abnormal chronic, unilateral nasal charge, or to remove abnormal contents within it, such as a progressive ethmoidal haematoma, an osteoma, a neoplasm, a cyst, inspissated exudate, a fungal granuloma or feed. The two types of osteoplastic flaps are the frontonasal flap and the maxillary flap. The frontonasal flap is the easier of the two to create and is the most commonly created flap because it provides direct or indirect access to all compartments of the ipsilateral paranasal sinuses. The maxillary flap provides good access to the rostral and caudal maxillary sinuses and is created most commonly to provide access to an orosinus fistula or the alveolus of a diseased maxillary molar to remove dental or osseous fragments.