The Surgical Pathology of Nasal Sinusitis

The first essential in the treatment of nasal sinusitis is an exact differential diagnosis of the surgical and nonsurgical types of disease condition present in the lining membranes. A lack of precise histopathologic knowledge in the past has led to the indiscriminate removal of tissues essential to the physiology of the nose and accessory sinuses. As every one knows, this has been attended by a striking array of contradictory results. The purpose of this report is to recount in as much detail as possible the known types of sinusitis, the effects of allergy on the course of the sinus disease, the separation of reversible inflammatory from irreversible degenerative changes, and the character of the lining that forms after radical operations. The chief desideratum is a working principle which will delineate the types of disease present in every case and indicate the most appropriate treatment for each. The method of choice,