Nasal and paranasal sinuses of the donkey [electronic resource]: gross anatomy and computed tomography.

Includes references.

The current work aimed to describe the anatomical findings of the nasal and paranasal sinuses of the donkey by gross anatomical observation of the skull and cadaver head through cross-sections, sagittal sections and com-puted tomography (CT) imaging. Seven adult donkeys and ten skulls were used in this study. The donkey head had six pairs of sinuses, three paranasal; the frontal, maxillary and sphenopalatine sinuses and three nasal; dorsal, middle and ventral conchal sinuses. The left and right frontal sinuses were complete-ly divided by a thick bony septum. Each frontal sinus is united rostrally with the dorsal conchal sinus forming concho-frontal sinus that communicated directly with the caudal maxillary sinus by fron-tomaxillary opening. The maxillary sinus is divided into rostral and caudal com-partments by a thin incomplete bony septum. The caudal maxillary sinus is divided into medial and lateral com-partments by the infraorbital canal that run longitudinally through it. The rostral maxillary sinus is communicated with the ventral conchal sinus through the conchomaxillary opening, while the ro-stral and caudal maxillary sinuses are connected with the middle nasal meatus via the slit-like nasomaxillary opening. Approach to the interior of the frontal, rostral and caudal maxillary was deter-mined. The location, size, and shape of the paranasal sinuses openings (con-chomaxillary, nasomaxillary, frontomax-illary and sphenopalatinal openings and opening of middle conchal sinus into caudal maxillary sinus) communicated the sinuses with the nasal cavity were identified in CT. The frontomaxillary opening was the largest opening, while the nasomaxillary opening was the nar-rowest one. CT images with cross-sections provided clear, unobstructed images on the paranasal structures, while paranasal lining was unclear in CT images because of its thin layer.

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