FUNCTION OF THE PARANASAL SINUSES

Prevailing theories of the function of the sinuses are numerous, but none are generally accepted. They include lightening the skull, a vocal resonating box, increased olfaction, humidification of the inspired air, and assistance in regulation of intranasal pressure. It has been proposed that the sinuses provide a source of environmentally uncontaminated mucus that is delivered to the midportions of the middle and superior meatus and dilutes the contamination of the mucus more directly exposured to the incoming air

NASAL MUCOUS MEMBRANE

The skin within the nasal vestibule is a tough, keratinized, squamous cell epithelium containing coarse hairs (the vibrissae) and sebaceous and sweat glands. As the turbinates are approached, the epithelium blends first into a cuboidal cell type and then into the respiratory type. As the nasopharynx is reached, the respiratory type blends to a moist, nonkeratinized, squamous cell mucous membrane similar to that in the oral cavity. The nasal mucous membrane is further considered later in this chapter. The mucosa of the paranasal sinuses contains pseudostratified ciliated columnar to cuboidal cell epithelium, is thin, and contains a few glands. The basement membrane is thin. Cilia, somewhat more abundant near the sinus ostia, propel the overlying blanket of mucus through the ostium, where it joins that in the nose