The secondary middle turbinate.

During functional endoscopic sinus surgery, the ethmoidal infundibulum and bulla are accessed through the middle meatus. This paper describes a secondary middle turbinate which arises from the lateral wall of the middle meatus, posterosuperior to the infundibulum and points superiorly within the meatus. A secondary middle turbinate was identified bilaterally in 6 out of 400 coronal CT scans of the nasal cavity and paranasal sinuses. The secondary middle turbinate did not obstruct the osteomeatal complex in any of our patients.