LXII. Osteoma of the Nasal Accessory Sinuses

Osteomata of the nasal accessory sinuses are not common, but the older authors writing on the subject agree that the sinus most commonly affected is the maxillary. The later writers give the frontal as the most frequent. The reason is that the frontal was rarely opened. Bony tumors of the sphenoid sinuses are very rare.' Portmann and Retrouvey2 are cited by Stout as finding only about thirty cases of frontal on record when they wrote their book on Cancer of the Nose in 1927. In 1928, Harris' reported 117 cases, and there have been reports of cases by several other authors since that time. Armitage' realized the discrepancy in the various estimates of the number of cases, and he merely cited the figures given by others, and concluded that the condition was a rare one. The great discrepancy between the figure of Portmann and Retrouvey and that of Harris, both of which were made within a year of each other, is probably due to wide divergence in the standard of diagnosis. Harris has accepted the figure of Gerber,' made in 1907, and added those cases he found after that date. Beck estimated 180 cases in 1930.'; Any accurate estimate of the exact number of cases would require a careful check of the reports and tabulation of cases. Such a careful survey might be of real value.