Experimental study of the frontal sinus development on Goettingen miniature pigs.

According to the literature, the development of the frontal sinus cavity is a result of the active immigration of cells from the ethmoidal complex into the os frontale. This migration theory is in contrast to the operative outcome of Apert's syndrome patients, after fronto-orbital advancement. When a fronto-orbital advancement at the age of a few months is performed in these patients while the frontal suture is yet closed, a sinus developed even the distance between nasal root and frontal bone bing up to 2 cm. In order to study the development of the frontal sinus, an animal study on 12 five-week-old infant Goettingen minipigs (GMP) was conducted, which did not have any clinical or histological signs of a frontal sinus development to investigate the development of the frontal sinus in "orthotopically" transplanted frontal bone with an open frontal suture. A comparison was made to a control group. The macro- and microscopical comparison with a control group revealed that the orthotopical transplants in the occipital bone developed epithelium-lined sinus, beginning from the thirty-fifth week. Based on these histomorphological results, a development scheme for the genesis of the sinus frontalis as a model were drawn.