Schwannoma of the nasal septum: Rare presentation and literature review

A Rare and Unexpected Reason for Unilateral Epistaxis: Nasal Septal Schwannoma

Nasal septal schwannoma is a rare tumor. It causes complaints such as nasal congestion, nosebleeds, and headaches. There are many diseases such as nasal polyps, antrochoanal polyp, chronic rhinosinusitis, concha bullosa, inverted papilloma, and retention cyst with schwannoma diagnosis. The diagnosis is made histopathologically, and the treatment is surgery. In this case report, we presented a male patient with septal schwannoma who had nasal obstruction for a year and reviewed the last 20 years of literature on nasal schwannoma.

[Nasal schwannoma with skull base destruction in a child (a case report and literature review)]

Schwannomas (neurinomas) are benign, encapsulated, and slow-growing neoplasms developing from any peripheral, cranial, or vegetative nerve that has the Schwann sheath. Schwannomas of the nasal cavity and paranasal sinuses in adults occur rarely, less than 4% of cases. The world literature lacks similar data for the pediatric age group because these tumors in children are unique and extremely rare. The most common clinical symptoms of sinonasal schwannoma are nasal breathing disorders, hyposmia or anosmia, and snoring at night. Other symptoms are associated with intranasal schwannoma invasion of neighboring organs and tissues and include exophthalmos, epiphora (lacrimation), headaches, and anesthesia in the facial area. In this article, we describe a rare case of diagnosis and successful surgical treatment of a child with intranasal schwannoma destructing the skull base.

Nasal septal schwannoma: a rare sinonasal tumour with certain peculiarities

Sinonasal schwannomas constitute 4% of head and neck nerve sheath tumours; however, schwannomas involving the nasal septum are quite rare. We present a 57-year-old male patient with nasal septal schwannoma who was managed successfully by endoscopic excision. 32 cases of septal schwannoma have been reported so far in the literature. This report discusses certain peculiar features exhibited by schwannomas of the nasal septum. Septal schwannoma does not show any age, sex or side predilection. However, they tend to involve posterior part of the septum and presumed to arise from the nasopalatine branch of the trigeminal nerve. Imaging findings of the sinonasal schwannoma are non-specific, but the histopathological characteristics are diagnostic, with seldom need for immunohistochemistry. Endoscopic excision is the safe and effective treatment option for the septal schwannoma of any size and location. Recurrence has not been reported in the literature following endoscopic excision.