A study of experimental sinusitis in rabbits.

Sinusitis was experimentally induced in rabbits by injecting one ml of casitone semi-liquid agar containing Staphylococcus aureus 209P in the order of 10(7) per ml into rabbit's bilateral paranasal sinuses (which had been sensitized with a 2.5% concentration of a purified egg white albumin solution) through a percutaneous route with a sterilized syringe. Two weeks after the last injection the rabbits were sacrificed and dissected. Light microscopic (LM) and scanning electron microscopic (SEM) examination of pathomorphological changes in this experimental model revealed that chronic inflammation developed in the mucous membranes of the paranasal sinuses at a high incidence.