Endoscopic Drainage of a Severe Subperiosteal Abscess – Less is More

An adolescent male presented with a few day history of right eye swelling, erythema, and edema. The eye swelling was determined to be a result of subperiosteal abscess of the medial orbit, as seen on imaging. The vision was progressively getting worse and the decision was made to urgently take the patient to the operating room. The surgical indications are at times controversial but include decreased range of motion of the eye as well as loss of vision/color discrimination. This patient only had markedly decreased range of motion of the eye. The patient was taken to the operating room; afrin pledgets were placed and the middle turbinate was medialized. At this time the edema and swelling of the ethmoid sinuses was evident. The traditional teaching is to remove the ethmoid air cells and open up the lamina papyrecea. For the past several years, the author has adopted a less is more approach – where the author opens up the ethmoid sinuses and exposes the lamina to allow the pus a route of egress. This video clearly epitomizes the less is more approach. The ethmoid cells have been opened up and there is a large route of egress for the pus which is under pressure. The video demonstrates that upon palpation of the right eye (the Stankiewicz maneuver), there is a massive amount of pus that drains out. The child recovered expeditiously. Endoscopic sinus surgery is an area where is there significant potential for errors and complications – especially inadvertent injury to the eye and brain. As such, the author believes that in some cases, a less is more approach ultimately benefits the patient.

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.17797/13t22bikb2