Abstract: Objective To explore the differences of mucosal thickness in goat paranasal sinus, and analyse the underlying reasons. The discussion can provide theoretical basis and guidance for issues related to mucosa in the practice of maxillary sinus floor augmentation. Methods The mucosa was cut into desired size from every sinus mucosa and fixed in formalin to get the tissue specimens, and observed under optical microscope with scaled eyepiece. Randomly selected three fields under the microscope from the samples and then measured and recorded. Paired t-test was used to determine the difference between the parameters, P<0.05 was regarded as statistically significant. Results Goat maxillary sinus mucosal thickness of the top was 410.03±65.97 μm, the bottom was 461.33±91.37 μm, the frontal sinus mucosa was 216.90±46.47 μm. The mean differences of mucosal thickness between the top of the maxillary sinus and the frontal sinus, the bottom and the frontal, the top and the bottom were statistically significant (P<0.05). Conclusions The top and bottom mucosal thickness of maxillary sinus was thicker than the frontal sinus mucosa, and the bottom mucosal thickness was slightly thicker than the top.

Key words: Goat, Maxillary sinus floor elevation, Sinus mucosa, Mucosal thickness