[Mini-endoscopy in the head and neck region]

A novel multipurpose mini-endoscope for frontal sinus endoscopy "sinus view"

Endoscopic frontal sinus surgery has been proven to enable the treatment of most frontal sinus pathologies but may be challenging for the surgeon in regard to the variable frontal sinus anatomy. Frontal sinus drainage identification and frontal sinus visualization are an essential part of successful frontal sinus surgery. We demonstrate a novel modular mini-endoscopic system for frontal sinus surgery. Fifty-two patients (37 male, 15 female) with a chronic rhino-sinusitis were enrolled. In this study, all patients were subjected to standard endonasal endoscopic sinus surgery with use of the fibre optic endoscope "Sinus View" (1.1 mm diameter, 10,000 pixels, irrigation channel and additional working channel) accessing the frontal sinus. A frontal sinus drainage type I in 38 cases, a frontal sinus drainage type IIa in 9 cases and a frontal sinus drainage type IIb in 5 cases according to Draf were performed. The modular mini-endoscopic system "Sinus view" was used to identify frontal sinus drainage in ten patients before ethmoidectomy and in the remaining patients (N = 42) after ethmoidectomy. Visualization of the frontal sinus drainage or the frontal sinus itself was easily carried out after irrigation. A clear identification of the frontal sinus by illumination was achieved in all cases. In addition the working channel of the endoscope was successfully used to perform visualized balloon dilatation at the frontal sinus drainage or for biopsy. The endonasal visualization of the frontal sinus drainage and frontal sinus itself is facilitated by also using a modular mini-endoscope with the option to use the working channel of the endoscope for biopsy or balloon dilatation.