Clinicopathological study of lesions of nasal cavity and paranasal sinuses- A two year study

Abstract

Sinonasal masses are common in the ENT Outpatient Department. The incidence being 1-4% of population. The symptoms and signs frequently overlap, hence, a diagnostic dilemma exists. The aim of this study was to study the occurrence of various lesions, the age, site and sex wise distribution in a tertiary care hospital of Maharashtra over the period of two years. The study aims to examine the occurrence of various lesions in nasal cavity and paranasal sinuses, to determine the age, sex and site wise incidence of different benign and malignant lesions of nasal cavity and paranasal sinuses and to correlate the clinical and histopathological findings. Descriptive Study A descriptive study was carried out in the Department of Pathology at Tertiary Health Care among patients with clinically diagnosed nasal and paranasal sinus lesions attending the OPD of ENT during a period of 2 years. The specimens were grossly examined; fixed and routine microscopic staining was done. Interpretation was done using colour of the nuclei and the specimens were classified as neoplastic and non-neoplastic lesions. The data was statistical analysed. Mean, Median, Mode The most common clinical presentation was nasal obstruction 97 (93.26%), rhinorrhoea 73 (70.19%) and facial pain 24 (23%). 1: Mean age for the lesions to occur was years with the range 21-30 years (20.92%); 2: Non-neoplastic lesions 82 (79.6%) were more common than neoplastic lesions; 3: Simple nasal polyp 74 (90.23%), hemangiomas (50%) and squamous cell carcinoma (50%) were most common. The study concludes that complete clinical, radiological and histopathological correlation helps us to categorize these sino-nasal lesions into various non-neoplastic and neoplastic types. But final histopathological examination provides a confirmatory diagnosis, as a significant number of cases may be missed on clinical evaluation alone.The clinical features of non-neoplastic and neoplastic nasal and paranasal sinuses lesions may be indistinguishable from each other leading to delay in proper diagnosis and treatment. Histopathological examination is a reliable, cost effective diagnostic tool for accurate diagnosis and management of such lesions, as a significant number of cases may be missed on clinical evaluation alone.