SHORT SCIENTIFIC COMMUNICATION Endoscopic resection of maxillary sinus inverted papillomas with inferior turbinate preservation

No sponsorships or competing interests have been disclosed for this article. The surgical management of inverted papillomas of the maxillary sinus has evolved from large en block excisions requiring external incisions to the minimally invasive endoscopic and endoscopic-as-sisted techniques used today. The traditional endoscopic approach involves resection of the inferior turbinate to perform an endoscopic medial maxillectomy, which can cause atrophic rhinitis and shrinking of the maxillary sinus, resulting in difficulty following these patients for recurrence in the office. In this article, we present a series of patients who underwent a modified endoscopic surgical approach for the excision of maxillary sinus inverted papillomas. In our approach, we preserve the inferior turbinate to preserve nasal mucosa physiol-ogy. Patient characteristics, recurrence rates, and complications asso-ciated with this approach are reviewed. © 2010 American Academy of Otolaryngology–Head and Neck Sur-gery Foundation. All rights reserved. Inverted papillomas are histologically benign, but locallyaggressive, lesions with a high recurrence rate and a small risk of malignant conversion. They account for approximately 0.5 to seven percent of all nasal tumors. Approximately 34 to 49 percent of lesions originate in the maxillary sinus.1-5 Be-cause of their locally aggressive behavior, five to 15 percent risk of malignant conversion, and propensity for recurrence, surgical resection is the mainstay of therapy.2,4 Over the last 15 years, endoscopic and endoscopic-assisted techniques have been described for removal of inverted pap-illomas. Traditionally, this involves resection of the inferior turbinate to perform an endoscopic medial maxillectomy. We present a modification to the previously described endoscopic techniques in which the inferior turbinate is spared to preserve as much of the physiology of the nose as possible