title: Perforation of the nasal septum in patients with renal failure.
abstract: Spontaneous perforation of the nasal septum was observed in 8 out of 104 patients (74 on maintenance hemodialysis; 30 after cadaveric renal transplantation). All patients showed a round or oval defect of the non-osseous septum, which was accompanied by marked atrophic rhinitis. Epistaxis was common in uremic patients in general and was also present in 5 patients with septal perforation, but otherwise the defect was hardly associated with any symptoms. Various factors may play a role in the pathogenesis of this lesion; local trauma from nasal catheters postoperatively; impaired mucosa cell proliferation; disturbed innervation of the vessels in the nasal septum due to polyneuropathy of the autonomous nervous system; ischemia secondary to arteriolar narrowing.
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D002648:Child; D004844:Epistaxis / Q000150:complications; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007676:Kidney Failure, Chronic / Q000150:complications* / Q000601:surgery / Q000628:therapy; D016030:Kidney Transplantation; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009300:Nasal Septum; D009668:Nose Diseases / Q000150:complications; D006435:Renal Dialysis; D012220:Rhinitis / Q000150:complications; D012422:Rupture, Spontaneous; D014184:Transplantation, Homologous