Canine fossa approaches in endoscopic sinus surgery - our experience.

Objective: To define the role of canine fossa approach when standard endoscopic endonasal sinus surgery technique fails.

Study Design: Retrospective review of all endoscopic sinus surgeries performed from 1992 to 2007.

Result: Out of 1612 endoscopic sinus surgeries for various indications, CFA was used in 80 patients (4.96%) and among this 15 had bilateral procedure.The various diseases which required CFA were allergic fungal sinusitis (AFS), Fungal ball, Chronic invasive aspergillosis,antro choanal polyp, inflammatory polyp, Mucocoele and Maxillary cyst,inverted papilloma and Juvenile Nasopharyngeal Angiofibroma (JNA). Eight patients had minor complications (cheek swelling-6, facial pain-2 ) which resolved in 5 days.

Conclusion: Canine fossa approach offers an ancillary approach to failed standard endoscopic endonasal technique thereby avoiding other more invasive procedures.