ABSTRACT
Previously, patients sustaining craniofacial trauma were routinely treated separately by several disciplines independently often resulting in poor outcomes. While accepting the simple classifications of simple linear fractures of a given bone or fossa involved, a more useful working classification of fractures involving the frontobasilar region was suggested by Bernstein et al. who divided the injuries into central, lateral and complex groups. The central group includes fractures involving the central anterior skull base and cribriform region adjacent to the frontal, ethmoidal and sphenoidal sinuses. The treatment of the frontal sinus is controversial, not least of all as prospective studies in this area are few and most algorithms relate to the retrospective analysis of a unit's data over many years. The frontal sinus is of variable size and is lined by respiratory epithelium that communicates via the frontonasal duct with the middle meatus of the nose.
