The importance of rigid nasal endoscopy in the diagnosis and treatment of rhinolithiasis.
OBJECTIVE
Rhinolithiasis is the presence of mineralized and calcareous formations located in the nasal cavity. They have rare occurrence and can be easily confused with infection or obstruction of upper airways. If they are undetected for a long time, they may grow large enough to cause of nasal obstruction, mimicking sinusitis. Seven cases of rhinolithiasis were presented, and their diagnosis was made by rigid endoscopic nasal examination. Also computerized tomography scan was used to describe the size and site of the rhinoliths accurately. Our purpose was to determine the role of rigid nasal endoscopy in the diagnosis and the treatment of rhinolithiasis.


METHODS
In this study, seven cases of rhinolithiasis, who were diagnosed and treated by rigid nasal endoscopy were presented.


RESULTS
Between January 2000 and November 2004, seven cases (four males and three females; age ranged from 8 to 45 years) with rhinolithiasis were diagnosed. The most frequent symptoms were nasal obstruction with purulent rhinorhea, nasal and oral malodor. As complementary examinations, computerized tomography and simple X-ray of paranasal sinuses were used to locate and measure the dimension of calcareous mass, and to reveal possible invasion of the adjacent structures. The removal of rhinolithiasis was done with rigid nasal endoscopy under topical anesthesia in six cases and general anesthesia in one case.


CONCLUSIONS
Rhinolithiasis is a rare condition but must always be suspected in patients with long standing nasal obstruction, nasal and oral malodor, purulent rhinorrhea and chronic headache.
Yuca
Köksal
K
Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Yüzüncü Yil University Faculty of Medicine, 65200 Van, Turkey. koksalyuca@yahoo.com
Caksen
Hüseyin
H
Etlik
Omer
O
Bayram
Irfan
I
Sakin
Yunus Feyyat
YF
Dülger
Haluk
H
Kiriş
Muzaffer
M
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D002648:Child; D004724:Endoscopy / Q000379:methods*; D004844:Epistaxis / Q000209:etiology; D005260:Female; D006261:Headache / Q000209:etiology; D006801:Humans; D020347:Lithiasis / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000601:surgery*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009093:Mucus / Q000378:metabolism; D009296:Nasal Cavity / Q000473:pathology / Q000601:surgery; D015508:Nasal Obstruction / Q000209:etiology; D009668:Nose Diseases / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000601:surgery*; D009812:Odorants; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed