Effect of cleft lip and palate deformity to the maxillary sinus volumes

Objectives: Maxillary sinusitis have a high incidence in patients with cleft lip and palate, because these patients manifest a variety of anatomical and morphological impairments of maxilla. As a consequence studies about maxillary sinuses of cleft lip–palate patients have increased. The aim of this study was to compare maxillary sinus volumes of the patients with bilateral cleft lip-palate, unilateral cleft lip–palate and control group by using Cone-Beam computed tomography.
Methods: Tomography scans of 18 bilateral cleft lip–palate patients with age and gender matched 25 control patients were evaluated for the study. All tomographs were obtained in supine position by using Cone-Beam computed tomography (NewTom 5G, QR, Verona, Italy). The patient-specific Hounsfield values were set to include the largest amount of voxels in the sinuses volume calculation individually. All data were measured in mm³.
Results: There was no statistically difference between the age and gender distributions of the groups. No statistically significant difference was found on right and left side of the bilateral cleft lip–palate patients and the control group (P > 0.05). For the inter group comparison, mean maxillary sinus volumes volume of bilateral cleft lip–palate patients (8532,07±3479,12mm³) was statistically smaller than the control group (11665,17±4587,63mm³) (P < 0.05).
Conclusions: Maxillary sinus volumes were effected negatively in bilateral cleft lip–palate patients when compared with the healthy control group. No difference was found on the right-left side of the bilateral cleft lip–palate patients.