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Purpose of review Technological advances and technical innovations have spearheaded an expansion in the indications for endoscopic sinonasal surgery, which now extend to the resection of sinonasal and skull base malignancies. This review examines recent advances that have contributed to make this technique feasible and reviews the basis of adopting an endonasal approach. Recent findings Oncologic goals developed for traditional skull base surgery can be safely applied to endoscopic skull base surgery. This has been made possible with the advent of better understanding of skull base anatomy from the endonasal perspective, as well as the development of better instrumentation, better hemostatic materials and more reliable reconstructive techniques. Recent publications have reported similar short-term outcomes for endoscopic skull base resection as compared with traditional approaches with lower complication rates. Summary Transnasal endoscopic surgery is an important part of the surgical armamentarium for the treatment of sinonasal and skull base malignancies. New technologies will further expand the limits of what can be achieved endoscopically. Collaborative multiinstitutional studies with long-term follow-up are crucial in defining the role of endoscopic resection in the treatment of skull base malignancies.

Tumours affecting the nose, paranasal sinuses and adjacent skull base are fortunately rare. However, they pose significant problems of management due their late presentation and juxtaposition to important anatomical structures such eye and brain. The increasing application of endonasal endoscopic techniques to their excision offers potentially similar scales of resection but with reduced morbidity. The present document is intended to be a state-of-the art review for any specialist with an interest in this area 1. to update their knowledge of neoplasia affecting the nose, paranasal sinuses and adjacent skull base; 2. to provide an evidence-based review of the diagnostic methods; 3. to provide an evidence-based review of endoscopic techniques in the context of other available treatments; 4. to propose algorithms for the management of the disease; 5. to propose guidance for outcome measurements for research and encourage prospective collection of data. The importance of a multidisciplinary approach, adherence to oncologic principles with intent to cure and need for long-term follow-up is emphasised.

The USDA Forest Service and Texas A&M University have jointly developed an integrated software package to assist district level personnel in project planning. It is called INFORMS-TX (Integrated Forest Resource Management System for National Forests in Texas). One of the main thrusts of INFORMS-TX is the integration of a rule-based expert system with a commercial geographic information system (GIS) through the use of a relational database management system (RDBMS). The rule-bases are developed in CLIPS, an expert system shell designed by NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration). ARC/INFO from ESRI (Environmental Systems Research Institute) is the GIS component and ORACLE is the choice for RDBMS. This system allows forest personnel to access ARC/INFO procedures to query and define a project area in a user friendly environment. Heuristic rule-bases can then be selected and applied to pertinent spatial data layers such as compartments or forest stands of the project area. The results generated by the rule-bases are stored in the database and are used to assist in silvicultural decision making. This software integration greatly enhances the use of geographically oriented resource data and knowledge accumulated from Forest Service experts to assist in project planning, alternative development and environmental assessment.

Communication via data visualization is particularly useful in natural resource management. However, it is more difficult to implement than it is on other scientific or engineering fields. In most other fields, visualization is used for well-defined problems in a narrow domain, which is usually deal with a limited number of data sets and highly structured application programs. programs. This greatly simplifies the requirements on the computing environment and programming complexity. In that setting, visualization can be presented in a more objective fashion, based on certain commonly accepted principles or criteria. In contrast, the incorporation of visualization in natural resource management has to be dealt with on a broader basis.