title: Presentation of choanal atresia in Saudi children.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To present data of cases with choanal atresia (CA) from Saudi patients, and to compare them to the data from the international literature.
  
  
  METHODS
  A retrospective analysis of the data available from the files of 37 consecutive patients with the diagnosis of CA at King Abdul-Aziz University Hospital, Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia between January 1999 and December 2005. This involved reviewing the age, gender, presenting symptoms, associated anomalies, surgical intervention, and outcomes.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Twenty-three of our cases had unilateral and 14 had bilateral CA. Strikingly, 83% of unilateral CA involved the right side. In our study, we found the female to male ratio to be 2:1. Approximately, 95% of the cases had mixed bony and membranous CA. Thirty-two percent of the cases had other associated congenital anomalies. Most of our cases had their surgical intervention by endoscopic technique.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Choanal atresia is a rare anomaly. In Saudi children, female is more commonly affected than male. There is a striking rate of involvement of the right side in the cases of unilateral CA.
authors.affiliation: Department of Otolaryngology--Head and Neck Surgery, King Abdul-Aziz University Hospital, PO Box 61419, Riyadh 11565, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. ahmedalammar@hotmail.com
authors.forename: Ahmed Y
authors.initials: AY
authors.lastname: Al-Ammar
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D002754:Choanal Atresia / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000601:surgery; D003627:Data Interpretation, Statistical; D004724:Endoscopy; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008297:Male; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012529:Saudi Arabia / Q000453:epidemiology; D012737:Sex Factors; D013997:Time Factors; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed; D016896:Treatment Outcome