Introduction: Patients with clefts of lip, alveolus and palate show a high incidence of maxillary sinusitis. In order to evaluate sinus size as a factor in sinusitis, this study investigates maxillary sinus morphology in an adult skull with an untreated bilateral cleft.
Material and methods: The maxillary sinus volume (MSV) of a mixed-sex sample of 140 adult skulls from three different populations was assessed and compared with the MSV of a skull of a 25 year old man showing an untreated complete bilateral cleft. A least squares regression analysis was used to investigate the relationship between MSV and different external cranial dimensions.
Results: The cleft skull shows a well-developed set of paranasal sinuses. There are close, significant relationships between MSV and the cranial measurements. The cleft skull had a MSV that does not deviate substantially from that predicted from the size of its facial skeleton.
Conclusion: This study indicates a close link between the size of the facial skeleton and the MSV in humans, even in case of an untreated bilateral cleft. This, in conjunction with the existing literature, makes it extremely unlikely that the sizes of the paranasal sinuses are a factor for sinusitis in patients with cleft lip, alveolus and palate.