Long-term results of the Lothrop operation

With continued surgical instrument advancement, endoscopic sinus surgery techniques continue to evolve with an overall improvement of our ability to offer surgical treatment for a variety of surgical disorders of the sinuses and anterior skull base. Frontal sinusitis and the extent of surgery performed in the frontal recess once medical management fails are constantly debated in the literature. It seems that even though instrumentation has greatly improved, surgical management of frontal sinusitis remains a frustrating endeavor for otolaryngologists. Open approaches to the frontal sinus, including the osteoplastic flap with frontal sinus obliteration using adipose tissue, have been the gold standard, but require external incisions and complete removal of sinus mucosa with destruction of the frontal sinus. The endoscopic modified Lothrop technique involves removal of the frontal sinus floor bilaterally with frontal septectomy and resection of the nasal septum to create a large nasofrontal communication. Recent postoperative results of this technique rival the results after frontal sinus obliteration in selected patients while avoiding the morbidity associated with the open destructive approach.