Balloon Sinuplasty: What It Is, Who It Helps, and What to Expect

Short answer

• Balloon sinuplasty widens a blocked sinus opening with a small inflated balloon. A guidewire and balloon catheter are passed through the nostril under endoscopic guidance, the balloon is inflated to stretch the opening, and the device is removed. No bone or tissue is removed.
• It is an option for selected people with chronic rhinosinusitis or recurrent acute rhinosinusitis who have failed appropriate medical therapy, with the diagnosis supported by nasal endoscopy and CT imaging, per the American Academy of Otolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery (AAO-HNS).
• Chronic means 12 weeks or longer: two or more symptoms, such as congestion, discharge, facial pain or pressure, or reduced sense of smell, plus objective evidence of inflammation on exam, endoscopy, or imaging.
• Imaging and examination decide candidacy, not symptoms alone. CT confirms whether a pathway is blocked, and endoscopy lets the clinician see swelling, mucus, and polyps directly.
• It best fits the maxillary, frontal, and sphenoid sinuses. Ethmoid disease, extensive polyps, bony erosion, osteitis, or fungal disease need a more complete operation.
• Recovery is usually faster than after traditional sinus surgery. Many people return to normal activity within 24 to 48 hours, with mild congestion, slight bloody drainage, and tiredness in the first days. Saline rinses, nasal steroid sprays, and follow-up often continue afterward.
• It is not risk free. Bleeding, infection, scarring, and narrowing again can occur. Rare but serious injuries to the eye area or skull base, including a cerebrospinal fluid leak, have been reported.
• This guide is general information only, not a diagnosis or a treatment recommendation for you. Decisions belong with your ENT specialist after an exam and imaging review.

Introduction

Balloon sinuplasty is best understood by starting with what it cannot do. It cannot remove nasal polyps. It cannot remove diseased tissue, fungal material, or thickened bone. It does not straighten a deviated septum, and it does not treat symptoms that are actually coming from allergy, rhinitis, migraine, or another condition rather than a blocked sinus opening. Those limits are not a footnote. They are the reason an examination and imaging come before any decision, and they explain why the same procedure can be a good fit for one person and a poor fit for another.

At its core, balloon sinuplasty is a dilation procedure. A clinician passes a small balloon catheter through the nostril, positions it in a narrowed sinus opening under endoscopic guidance, inflates it briefly to widen the opening, and then deflates and removes it. No tissue is cut away in a standalone balloon procedure. The goal is simple to state and harder to guarantee: restore drainage so mucus can leave the sinus the way it is meant to.

This article explains the sinuses and chronic sinusitis first, then who balloon dilation may help, how an ENT specialist decides, what happens step by step, what recovery is usually like, the risks stated plainly, how it compares with medical management and with traditional endoscopic sinus surgery, and what costs and coverage look like in general terms. It is general information only. It does not diagnose any individual or recommend treatment for any individual. Whether this procedure fits you can only be decided after an in person evaluation by an ENT specialist who has examined you and seen your imaging.

The Sinuses, Drainage, and Why Openings Matter

The paranasal sinuses are air filled spaces around the nose: maxillary sinuses behind the cheeks, frontal sinuses in the forehead, sphenoid sinuses deep at the back of the nose, and ethmoid sinuses between the eyes. Each is lined with mucus producing tissue and drains through a small natural opening, called an ostium, into the nasal cavity. Tiny hair like cilia move mucus toward the opening so it can drain. For background on how air moves through the airways, see our explainer on the function of the breathing system. When the lining swells or the opening is narrow, drainage slows. A persistently blocked pathway is the specific mechanical problem balloon dilation was designed to address.

Sinusitis, also called rhinosinusitis, means inflammation of that lining. Chronic rhinosinusitis differs from a cold related episode: symptoms persist for 12 weeks or longer, and the AAO-HNS and its patient arm, ENT Health, require objective confirmation, not symptoms alone, through examination, endoscopy, or CT imaging. That matters because facial pressure has many causes. Migraine is a well recognized mimic of sinus pain, and verifying the diagnosis helps avoid unnecessary surgery.

What Balloon Sinuplasty Is

Balloon sinuplasty, also called balloon sinus dilation, is a minimally invasive, catheter based technique adapted from balloon catheter procedures used elsewhere in medicine. Balloon catheter systems for the sinuses were first cleared by the US Food and Drug Administration in 2005, and the technique is now performed in operating rooms, outpatient surgical centers, and, for suitable patients, in a medical office.

The principle is remodeling, not removal. Under endoscopic visualization, the clinician advances a flexible guidewire into the targeted sinus, slides a small balloon catheter over the wire until it sits across the narrowed opening, and inflates the balloon. It stretches and remodels the surrounding tissue and thin bone, widening the ostium. The balloon is then deflated and removed, leaving a larger opening. Cleveland Clinic describes the same sequence for patients: decongestant, local anesthetic, an endoscope used to place a catheter through the nostril, a balloon guided into the sinus and inflated slowly, then deflation and removal.

Because nothing is cut away in a standalone procedure, there are no external incisions and usually no nasal packing. That tissue preserving character is the real difference from traditional surgery, and also the source of its limits: a tool that only widens an opening cannot clear out material that needs to be removed.

What Balloon Sinuplasty Is Not

• It does not remove polyps. The 2025 AAO-HNS guideline on surgical management of chronic rhinosinusitis states this directly: when a sinus involves polyps, osteitis, bony erosion, or fungal disease, the surgeon should perform surgery that fully exposes the sinus and removes diseased tissue, not just balloon or manual dilation, or refer the patient on.
• It does not remove diseased tissue, fungal balls, or debris that must be cleared. Those problems need instruments that can remove material, usually as part of functional endoscopic sinus surgery.
• It does not fix a deviated septum on its own. If a marked deviation is the main cause of obstruction, or blocks access to an opening, straightening it is a separate procedure, sometimes combined with sinus work.
• It is not a treatment for ethmoid disease by itself. The AAO-HNS position statement names the frontal, maxillary, and sphenoid ostia for dilation used alone. The ethmoid sinuses are a honeycomb of small cells rather than one opening, so ethmoid disease generally requires conventional techniques.
• It does not treat allergy, rhinitis, or migraine. If symptoms are driven mainly by allergic inflammation, nonallergic rhinitis, or headache disease, widening an opening will not address the cause. See also our guides to chronic rhinitis treatment for a runny nose that will not stop and how to relieve sinus pressure.
• It is not a first step. Dilation is considered after the diagnosis is confirmed and medical therapy has not controlled the condition, or is not expected to do so.

Who It May Help

The AAO-HNS position statement on sinus dilation, revised in 2021 and reviewed in October 2024, frames candidacy this way: dilation is a therapeutic option for selected patients with chronic rhinosinusitis and recurrent acute rhinosinusitis who have failed appropriate medical therapy, with the diagnosis supported by nasal endoscopy and CT evidence of mucosal thickening.

A typical candidate has symptoms lasting 12 weeks or longer, or acute episodes that keep returning, affecting daily life, sleep, or work. Appropriate medical management has already been tried, such as saline irrigation and intranasal corticosteroid sprays, with antibiotics or oral steroids only where a clinician judged them indicated, and relief has been incomplete. Endoscopy shows abnormality in the drainage pathways, and CT confirms a blocked or narrowed opening in a maxillary, frontal, or sphenoid sinus that matches the symptoms, with no large polyps, fungal disease, or bony erosion requiring removal instead.

One misunderstanding needs correcting. Older descriptions sometimes present a fixed number of weeks of medication as a pass or fail gate. The 2025 AAO-HNS surgical guideline advises against that: the surgeon should not require a predefined, one size fits all regimen or duration of medical therapy as a prerequisite to sinus surgery. Medical therapy is still usually tried first, but whether enough is enough depends on symptoms, findings, and prior treatment. If your pattern is repeated infections that never fully settle, our article on a sinus infection that will not go away covers the workup that should come first.

Who It Usually Does Not Suit

Balloon dilation alone is usually the wrong tool when the problem is something other than a narrow opening in a suitable sinus: extensive nasal polyps, allergic fungal rhinosinusitis or a fungal ball, bony erosion or osteitis, a tumor or large cyst, severe or complicated sinusitis, and primary ethmoid disease. It is also a poor answer when symptoms are mild and well controlled with medical care, when there is no objective evidence of inflammation, or when the dominant problem is a deviated septum, allergy, or rhinitis.

Children need a separate conversation, because pediatric candidacy and anesthesia are judged differently. This article is written for adults. Parents should discuss any sinus procedure for a child with a pediatric ENT specialist. Being told you are not a candidate is useful information, not a dead end: it usually points toward better medical management or a more complete operation.

How an ENT Decides: The Evaluation

Expect the decision to be built in stages, not offered from symptoms alone.

1. History and symptom review. How long symptoms have lasted, which dominate, how they affect quality of life, past infections, and treatments already tried. ENT Health notes that surgeons may use a questionnaire such as the SNOT-22 to measure that burden.
2. Nasal examination and endoscopy. A thin telescope passed into the nose lets the clinician see the drainage pathways directly: swelling, purulent mucus, polyps, and the openings themselves.
3. CT imaging. Cleveland Clinic states that before balloon sinuplasty, the provider will use CT scans to confirm it is an appropriate treatment. The 2025 AAO-HNS guideline adds that surgical candidates should have CT imaging to help plan the operation, and that CT alone should not decide which sinuses are treated.
4. A candidacy conversation. The surgeon explains which sinuses are involved, whether dilation alone, dilation combined with other instruments, full endoscopic sinus surgery, or continued medical care fits best, and what benefit is realistic.

If you are unsure which specialist does what, our explainer on ENT vs audiologist sets out who to see first for sinus, ear, and hearing concerns.

Medical Management and Other Alternatives

For most people, medical management comes first, and for many it remains part of care even after a procedure.

Saline irrigation helps clear mucus and debris and is recommended in AAO-HNS guidance on adult sinusitis, alone or alongside topical steroids. After a procedure, saline rinses are also standard healing care, on your clinician schedule. Intranasal corticosteroid sprays reduce inflammation in the lining and are a mainstay for chronic rhinosinusitis. The adult sinusitis guideline recommends saline irrigation, topical intranasal corticosteroids, or both for symptom relief. They work gradually and need consistent use.

Antibiotics and oral steroids are used selectively. Chronic rhinosinusitis is often driven by inflammation rather than active bacterial infection, so antibiotics are not automatic. ENT Health explains that antibiotics are not always helpful for chronic disease, and the 2025 guidelines advise against routine antibacterial therapy when significant purulent discharge is absent on examination. Oral steroids are used in selected situations, particularly with polyps.

Allergy and trigger management can matter as much as any procedure where allergy contributes, because dilation does not change an allergic lining. Persistent drainage down the back of the throat is covered in our article on post nasal drip when it is more than allergies. Continued medical care without a procedure is a legitimate choice where symptoms are tolerable, and traditional endoscopic sinus surgery, described next, remains the more complete option where tissue must be removed.

What Happens During the Procedure, Step by Step

Timings vary by how many sinuses are treated and whether dilation is combined with other work, but a standalone procedure commonly takes about 30 to 60 minutes, with total appointment time longer.

1. Setting and numbing. In an office, you sit in a reclining exam chair. A topical decongestant is applied, followed by local anesthetic on pads or spray and then injected into tissue lining the nose. Some patients also choose light sedation. In an operating room, general anesthesia may be used instead. You should be told in advance which approach is planned and whether you need a driver, which Cleveland Clinic notes most providers recommend arranging.
2. Endoscopic guidance. The clinician places a thin endoscope, a tube with a light and camera, into the nostril. Everything passes through the nostril, with no external incisions.
3. Guidewire placement. A thin, flexible guidewire is advanced into the blocked sinus opening, confirming access to the correct sinus.
4. Balloon inflation. A small balloon catheter is slid over the guidewire, positioned across the narrowed opening, and inflated slowly. Most people who are awake report pressure rather than significant pain.
5. Deflation, flushing, and removal. The balloon is deflated and removed, and the guidewire is withdrawn. Trapped mucus may be flushed out with saline. The sequence can be repeated for another sinus.
6. Immediate recovery. You stay until the team is comfortable that you can leave, usually the same day. There are typically no stitches and no packing. You will be given saline rinse instructions and any restrictions on nose blowing, exercise, and flying.

A hybrid procedure combines dilation for one sinus with conventional instruments for another problem in the same session, such as ethmoid disease or polyp removal.

Balloon Sinuplasty Compared With Traditional Sinus Surgery

ENT Health draws the distinction in one line: dilation uses a probe or balloon to widen an opening and removes no bone or tissue, while surgery to create wide openings removes tissue, bone, or both.

Feature	Balloon sinuplasty (standalone)	Functional endoscopic sinus surgery
Main action	Inflates a balloon to widen a natural opening	Widens openings and removes blocking tissue, bone, or polyps
Tissue removed	None	Yes, where diseased tissue must be cleared
Typical setting	Office, surgical center, or operating room	Usually an outpatient surgical center or hospital
Typical anesthesia	Local numbing, sometimes light sedation, or general anesthesia	Usually general anesthesia
Best suited to	Blocked maxillary, frontal, or sphenoid openings, no disease to remove	Polyps, fungal disease, bony erosion, extensive or ethmoid disease, failed dilation
Recovery pattern	Often back to normal activity in 24 to 48 hours	Commonly about 1 to 2 weeks of limited activity
Main limitation	Cannot remove polyps or diseased tissue	More tissue disruption and healing

Neither column is automatically better. Wide openings let rinses and topical medications reach into the sinuses afterward. Dilation preserves tissue and usually gives an easier early recovery. The right choice follows your imaging, not a preference for the smaller procedure.

Recovery: The First Days and the Following Weeks

Cleveland Clinic summarizes the evidence this way: studies show long lasting results for appropriately selected patients, and compared with sinus surgery, balloon sinuplasty may lead to a faster recovery with less pain. In the first day or two, expect mild congestion, a small amount of bloody drainage that usually clears within a few days, mild facial pressure similar to a cold, and tiredness, especially if sedation was used. Over the counter pain relief is often enough, using only what your clinician approves. Many people return to normal, non strenuous activity within 24 to 48 hours. Full recovery takes longer, settling over days to weeks.

Saline rinses are usually recommended to keep the passages clean while the area heals, exactly as your team instructs. Follow any rules about nose blowing, heavy exercise, bending, and flying.

Follow-up is part of the treatment. Cleveland Clinic gives a representative schedule: endoscopy appointments at about one week, three months, and one year. Your own schedule may differ. The 2025 AAO-HNS surgical guideline recommends routine follow up between 3 and 12 months after sinus surgery, through history and nasal endoscopy, to check healing and whether drainage has stayed open.

Contact your clinician promptly during recovery if bleeding is heavy or does not settle, pain is severe or worsening, you develop fever, swelling or redness appears around an eye, your vision changes, you have a severe headache or neck stiffness, or clear watery fluid drains persistently from the nose.

Risks and Complications, Stated Plainly

Balloon sinuplasty is generally described as safe in the clinical literature, and standalone dilation avoids the wounds created by removing tissue. Generally safe is not the same as risk free.

• Common and usually temporary: congestion, mild bleeding or bloody drainage, facial pressure, discomfort, and tiredness in the first days.
• Bleeding that needs attention. Significant bleeding is uncommon, but nosebleeds can occasionally need packing, further treatment, or urgent assessment.
• Infection and inflammation flares can follow a procedure in an already inflamed area.
• Scarring and narrowing again. Openings can narrow over time, called restenosis, through scarring or ongoing inflammation, and symptoms can return. Some people later need repeat dilation or endoscopic sinus surgery.
• Failure to help. If the main driver was not the opening dilated, for example uncontrolled allergy, rhinitis, or migraine, symptoms may persist despite a technically successful procedure.
• Injury to nearby structures, rare but serious. The sinuses sit close to the eye socket and the skull base. In a peer reviewed analysis of FDA adverse event reports from 2006 through 2014, Prince and Bhattacharyya found 114 reported adverse events, with orbital injuries the most frequently reported type, including orbital wall fractures, plus 17 skull base injuries and severe nosebleed. Cerebrospinal fluid leak, a leak of fluid around the brain through a skull base injury, was associated in that reporting with frontal and sphenoid procedures. Adverse event reports are not a measure of how often complications happen, because reporting is incomplete and there is no reliable denominator, so those numbers are not your personal risk percentage. They establish that these injuries are real, documented possibilities.
• Anesthesia and sedation risks depend on the type used and your health history.

Ask your surgeon how often they perform this procedure, and which of your sinuses sit closest to the eye and skull base.

How Long Results Last

For well selected patients, studies report durable improvement, with many people maintaining improved drainage and symptom relief for several years. The REMODEL studies and related meta analyses cited by the AAO-HNS compared standalone dilation with sinus surgery in selected patients, and office based studies report improvement sustained at one year and beyond. Individual results vary.

Durability depends mainly on selection, inflammation control, and healing. Dilation of a genuinely blocked opening holds up better than dilation without a clear target. People with underlying allergy or ongoing inflammation often benefit from continuing medical management afterward, because dilation opens a door and does not change what is happening behind it. An opening can also narrow again. Balloon sinuplasty does not limit future options: if symptoms return and imaging supports it, endoscopic sinus surgery remains available. Be cautious with any promise of permanent relief.

Costs and Coverage, in General Terms

No responsible general guide can quote you a price, and this one does not. Costs vary widely by setting, region, how many sinuses are treated, whether the procedure is standalone or combined, anesthesia type, and facility and imaging charges. An office procedure and an operating room procedure for the same sinuses can produce very different bills.

Coverage varies by plan and by medical necessity criteria. Many plans cover dilation for medically documented chronic rhinosinusitis or recurrent acute rhinosinusitis where criteria are met, typically including a confirmed diagnosis, objective findings on endoscopy or CT, and documentation of prior medical therapy. Prior authorization is common. Coverage has broadened over the past decade, but broadened is not guaranteed.

Before scheduling, ask for a written estimate under your own plan, covering the procedure, anesthesia, imaging, facility charges, follow up, and supplies, and ask your insurer whether prior authorization is required. For context on the consultation side of the bill, see our guide to how much an ENT visit costs. Keep the written answers.

Questions to Ask at Your ENT Appointment

• Which sinuses are blocked on my CT, and which endoscopy findings support that?
• Is dilation alone enough, or is there tissue, polyps, or fungal material to remove?
• Are we treating a maxillary, frontal, or sphenoid opening, an ethmoid problem, or a combination?
• Is there an optimized medical option we have not yet tried?
• Will this be standalone or hybrid, and what anesthesia is planned?
• What results are realistic for my imaging, and how long do they last?
• What are the specific risks for my anatomy, particularly for the eye and skull base?
• What follow up and ongoing sprays or rinses are planned?
• What is my written cost estimate, and has prior authorization been confirmed?
• If dilation does not help enough, what is the next step?

When Sinus Symptoms Need Prompt or Urgent Care

Most chronic sinus symptoms are managed in routine appointments. Some signs should not wait. Mayo Clinic advises seeking care right away for signs that could mean a serious infection: fever, swelling or redness around the eyes, a bad headache, forehead swelling, confusion, double vision or other vision changes, and a stiff neck. Serious complications are rare, but infection can spread to an eye socket and reduce vision or cause blindness, and can uncommonly spread to the membranes around the brain and spinal cord, to bone, or to skin.

Book a routine appointment if you have repeated sinusitis that does not respond to treatment, symptoms lasting more than 10 days without improvement, or a pattern that keeps returning. An ENT evaluation is also warranted for symptoms lasting 12 weeks or longer, persistent loss of smell, or symptoms affecting sleep and daily life despite medical care.

Frequently Asked Questions

Am I a candidate for balloon sinuplasty? You may be, if you have chronic rhinosinusitis lasting 12 weeks or longer, or recurrent acute rhinosinusitis, that has not responded well enough to appropriate medical therapy, and if endoscopy and CT confirm a blocked opening in a maxillary, frontal, or sphenoid sinus, without disease such as extensive polyps or fungal material that must be removed. Only an individual ENT evaluation can decide it.

Does balloon sinuplasty hurt? Most people who are awake report pressure during inflation rather than significant pain, because the nasal passages are numbed, and sedation is sometimes added. Cleveland Clinic makes the same point: the procedure usually is not painful. Afterward, discomfort is typically mild. Slight bloody drainage in the first day or two is common.

How long does the procedure take? A standalone procedure commonly takes about 30 to 60 minutes, depending on how many sinuses are treated, with longer total time for numbing, preparation, and recovery checks. A hybrid procedure takes longer.

How long is recovery? Many people return to normal, non strenuous activity within 24 to 48 hours, and Cleveland Clinic notes a faster recovery with less pain than traditional sinus surgery. Mild congestion, bloody drainage, and tiredness are common in the first days, and full settling takes days to weeks.

What if balloon sinuplasty does not work for me? It does not close off other options. Endoscopic sinus surgery remains available if symptoms persist and imaging supports further surgery. Persistent symptoms can also mean the diagnosis itself needs revisiting, for example ongoing allergy or inflammation.

Does insurance cover balloon sinuplasty? Often, for medically documented chronic or recurrent disease that meets your plan’s medical necessity criteria, but coverage varies by plan and prior authorization is common. Check your plan before scheduling, and ask the clinic for a written estimate.

How long do the results last? Studies in selected patients show durable results, with many people maintaining improved drainage and symptom relief for several years, though individual results vary. Openings can narrow again, particularly where allergy or ongoing inflammation continues.

Can balloon sinuplasty remove polyps or fix a deviated septum? No. It widens an opening and removes nothing. The 2025 AAO-HNS surgical guideline states that where polyps, osteitis, bony erosion, or fungal disease are present, surgery should fully expose the sinus and remove diseased tissue, not rely on dilation alone. A deviated septum needs its own procedure.

Sources & references

• American Academy of Otolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery (AAO-HNS), Position Statement: Dilation of sinuses, any method (e.g., balloon, etc.), 13 April 2021, reviewed October 2024. States that sinus ostial dilation is a therapeutic option for selected patients with chronic rhinosinusitis and recurrent acute rhinosinusitis who have failed appropriate medical therapy, with diagnosis supported by nasal endoscopy and CT evidence of mucosal thickening, and that dilation may be used alone for a frontal, maxillary, or sphenoid ostium or in conjunction with other instruments. https://www.entnet.org/resource/position-statement-dilation-of-sinuses-any-method-e-g-balloon-etc/ Opened and read first hand on 3 November 2026.
• ENT Health (AAO-HNS patient information), Surgical Management of Chronic Rhinosinusitis FAQs. Defines chronic rhinosinusitis as inflammation for 12 weeks or longer, describes diagnosis confirmation by symptoms plus exam, endoscopy, or CT, distinguishes sinus dilation, which removes no bone or tissue, from surgery creating wide openings, which removes tissue, bone, or both, and covers medical alternatives, postoperative care, and follow up. https://www.enthealth.org/be_ent_smart/surgical-management-of-chronic-rhinosinusitis-faqs/ Opened and read first hand on 3 November 2026.
• American Academy of Otolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery Foundation, Clinical Practice Guideline: Surgical Management of Chronic Rhinosinusitis, published 27 May 2025, as summarized in the AAO-HNS guideline pocket guide and patient summary. Key points used here: verify the diagnosis and assess candidacy, do not require a predefined one size fits all regimen or duration of medical therapy before surgery, obtain CT imaging for surgical candidates while not deciding treatment from CT alone, perform full exposure and removal of diseased tissue rather than dilation alone where polyps, osteitis, bony erosion, or fungal disease are present, and follow up between 3 and 12 months. Summaries opened and read first hand on 3 November 2026.
• American Academy of Otolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery Foundation, Clinical Practice Guideline Update: Adult Sinusitis, 2025. Defines chronic rhinosinusitis by 12 weeks or longer of two or more symptoms with documented inflammation, and recommends saline nasal irrigation, topical intranasal corticosteroids, or both for symptom relief in chronic disease. Guideline summaries opened and read first hand on 3 November 2026.
• Cleveland Clinic, Balloon Sinuplasty: Procedure and Recovery, health library. Describes CT confirmation before the procedure, the office and operating room step sequences with decongestant, local anesthetic, endoscope, catheter and balloon, pressure rather than pain during the procedure, benefits including long lasting results in studies and faster recovery with less pain than sinus surgery, and a representative follow up schedule at one week, three months, and one year with nasal endoscopy. https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/treatments/21977-balloon-sinuplasty Opened and read first hand on 3 November 2026.
• Mayo Clinic, Chronic sinusitis: symptoms and causes, and Acute sinusitis: symptoms and causes. Covers chronic sinusitis lasting 12 weeks or longer, when to seek care right away, including fever, swelling or redness around the eyes, bad headache, forehead swelling, confusion, vision changes, and stiff neck, and rare serious complications involving the eye socket, meningitis, bone, and skin. https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/chronic-sinusitis/symptoms-causes/syc-20351661 Read via Mayo Clinic pages returned in search on 3 November 2026.
• Prince A, Bhattacharyya N, An Analysis of Adverse Event Reporting in Balloon Sinus Procedures, Otolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery, 2016; 154(4): 748-753. Retrospective analysis of FDA OpenFDA device adverse event reports from January 2006 through December 2014: 114 adverse events identified, orbital complications the most frequently reported injuries, 17 skull base injuries, severe epistaxis, and cerebrospinal fluid leak associated with frontal and sphenoid surgery in that reporting. Abstract opened and read first hand on 3 November 2026. Adverse event reports do not establish incidence rates.
• InformedHealth.org (Institute for Quality and Efficiency in Health Care), Overview: Sinusitis, NCBI Bookshelf, last update 17 April 2024. Describes the paranasal sinuses, frontal, sphenoid, ethmoid, and maxillary, their mucus producing lining, and sinusitis as inflammation of the membranes lining the sinuses and nose. Read via the NCBI Bookshelf summary returned in search on 3 November 2026.