CLINICAL AND RADIOLOGICAL FEATURES OF RHINOLITH: A RARE ENTITY DIAGNOSIS IN 42 PATIENTS
1Haseki Eğitim ve Araştırma Hastanesi, Kulak Burun Boğaz, İstanbul, Turkey2İstanbul Rumeli Üniversitesi, Odyometri, İstanbul, Turkey Introduction: Rhinoliths is a rare entity that can be observed at any age and may have many different presentations, which may cause confusion in differential diagnosis. Rhinoliths are foreign bodies of endogenous or exogenous origin located in the nasal cavity. Malodor nasal discharge, bad breath, nasal obstruction are the most common complaints.
The aim of this study is to examine the ages, gender, complaints, and additional pathologies of patients with rhinoliths and to evaluate the characteristics of rhinolith disorders in the light of the literature.
Methods: Patients diagnosed with rhinoliths in an education and research hospital between January 2010 and December 2019 were included in our study. The patients were evaluated retrospectively.
Age, gender, complaints, physical examination findings, radiological results, rhinolith side and localization, rhinolith-related pathologies and treatments were recorded. The characteristics and presentation of rhinolith disease were investigated by evaluating the obtained data.
Results: Of the 42 patients included in our study, 19 were male and 23 were female. The mean age of patients was 24.1 ± 10.7 years (min: 7, max: 44).
In 26 patients (61,9%), rhinoliths was localized in the right nasal cavity and in 16 (38,1%) patients in the left nasal cavity. The most common complaints were nasal obstruction and purulent discharge with malodors. The most common associated pathologies were sinus pathologies (50.1%) and septum deviation (38.1%).
Rhinoliths were removed endoscopically in all patients, 28 of the patients underwent general anesthesia during the procedure, 9 of them were sedoanelgesia and 5 of them were local anesthesia.
Conclusions: A rare case, rhinolith should be strongly considered as differential diagnosis in cases such as unilateral purulent discharge and nasal mass.
Keywords : Rhinolith, sinusitis, nasal obstruction