Ludhiana, November 27
“If you have headaches for a long time, it does not necessarily imply a tumour in the brain. It may be something simpler like chronic sinusitis - a collection of pus in your sinuses. This may be rectified by medications, or else by means of a simple endoscopic sinus surgical procedure.”
A research project, undertaken at the Dayanand Medical College and Hospital on the “Endoscopic study of sinus” was recently awarded the prestigious Saraswati Verma Gold Medal.
The research aimed at finding ways to gain endoscopic access to the most deep-seated sinus. This sinus is located in proximity to undersurface of the brain, the nerves of vision, and the main blood vessels of the
brain, thereby making surgery a dicey affair.
The exhaustive research was undertaken under the supervision of Dr Manish Munjal, Professor in the Department of ENT at the DMCH, and was covered in a period of three years.
Dr R.K. Kaushal, Professor in Neurosurgery and Dr Poonam Singh, Professor of Anatomy and Dr Sunit Bhatia, Resident in the ENT Department were other team members of the project.
Dr Manish Munjal said the sinuses were hollow chambers, surrounding the eyes and the nose, and normally produced secretions that drained into the nose and then fell back into the throat from where they were swallowed. In cases of excess production of secretions or obstruction to normal drainage of secretions, there was a stagnation of secretions in the sinuses with consequent bacterial or fungal infection. Such condition led to pressure effects on the sinus walls, causing mild
or in many cases excruciating headaches.
"These sinus headaches are on the forehead, back, top or sides of the head depending on which sinus is affected. Headaches worsen with position of head, time of the day and change of season. Headaches due to sinus pathology warrant further essential investigations and timely sinus surgery to avoid untoward eye and brain complications later. Especially so, in the aged, diabetics and kidney patients, in other words those with a lowered body resistance."
Dr Munjal said that sinus surgery, now a days, involved a
minimal invasive procedure in which only the opening of the sinuses were tackled under
magnified endoscopic visualisation.
The project, one of its kind undertaken in the region, included an in-depth analysis of operative patients X-rays, CT scans, MRI scans and preserved bone specimens and introduced certain guidelines to approach this deep seated sinus, Dr Munjal added.
