Study of variants of anterior ethmoidal artery on computed tomography of paranasal sinuses

Background: The anterior ethmoidal artery (AEA) is an anatomical landmark, its position is important for recognizing structures of difficult access (frontal sinus) and to define skull base in surgery.Additionally, visualizing this artery makes it possible to identify and treat causes of severe epistaxis. The aims and objectives of the study were to determine the reliability of identification of the AEA on the coronal CT scan, to study the variability in the pneumatisation of the suprabullar recess and the course of the AEA and to determine whether a correlation exists between the pneumatisation of the suprabullar recess and the distance of the AEA from the base skull. Methods: This study conducted among 200 Patients attending to ENT OPD, Yashoda hospital, Secunderabad with history of headache, nose block who underwent CT-PNS. Patients with age above 18 years without any congenital anomalies of face, without opacification in frontal recess or anterior ethmoidal cells, without nasal surgeries or trauma were included in the present study. All the 200 CT-PNS were studied in detail by using PACS and DICOM software. Results: In this study AEA was present in 100% of cases on both sides. In this study AEA was seen in skull base in 50.75% of cases, among this 51% was on right side, remaining was on left side. Conclusions: CT-PNS coronal sections are helpful in assessment of AEA position pre-operatively. AEF and AES act as important landmarks for the identification of AEA in CT-PNS.