الفهرس 
Anatomy of the Paranasal SinusesOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
 |  | from | 127 |  |  |
| | | from | 127 | | |
Abstract
Studies of balloon sinus ostial dilation do not allow conclusions regarding the comparative efficacy of balloon sinus ostial dilation to FESS. The one randomized clinical trial showed roughly similar magnitude of relief of symptoms with no formal comparison between the 2 treatment arms. The study was underpowered to detect a clinically significant difference between the 2 treatment arms or to assess a clinically meaningful noninferiority margin.The nonrandomized studies also do not allow conclusions regarding comparative efficacy. The lack of randomization may bias the study findings. In the comparative study in adults, restriction of the balloon sinus ostial dilation group to subjects who only had balloon sinus ostial dilation without FESS resulted in a group with fewer diseased sinuses than the FESS group. In the other nonrandomized comparative studies of pediatric patients, one showed no difference in improvement of sinusitis symptoms between groups, and the other was of limited relevance because balloon sinus ostial dilation was compared to adenoidectomy rather than FESS.Although the case series show improvement of sinusitis symptoms after surgery, and appear to show relief up to 2 years after surgery, such studies cannot provide conclusions regarding comparative efficacy to FESS. Potential differences in patient selection and disease severity do not allow comparisons to published studies of FESS. In these studies,patients commonly had both balloon sinus ostial dilation and FESS procedures, further complicating the interpretation of the findings.However, surgical complications attributable to balloon sinus ostial dilation appear uncommon.