[Mucoceles of the paranasal sinuses]

Nasal Sinus Mucoceles Manifesting Ocular Symptoms

INTRODUCTION

To describe the ocular symptoms in a series of patients with nasal sinus mucoceles of different locations.

METHODS

The authors analyzed the diagnosis and treatment of patients with sinus mucoceles and ocular symptoms who presented to the hospital from February 2010 to April 2020. A total of 61 patients were included in the study. The locations of the mucoceles were the frontal sinus (8 patients), ethmoid sinus (25 patients), and sphenoid sinus (28 patients). The authors selected 1 typical mucocele case from each of the sinuses, including the frontal, ethmoid, and sphenoid sinuses, and analyzed the history, diagnosis, and treatment of mucoceles in each location.

RESULTS

The main clinical manifestations were ophthalmic symptoms, such as exophthalmos or displacement, eye pain, blindness or decreased vision, blepharoptosis, and diplopia; no obvious nasal symptoms were noted. Most patients with these symptoms went to an ophthalmologist first. All lesions in this study were found through imaging examinations. Most symptoms improved after surgical interventions. Only 2 of the 61 patients had no improvement in vision because of the long period of vision loss.

CONCLUSIONS

Although sinus mucoceles are located in the sinuses, ocular symptoms are more prevalent than nasal symptoms. The earlier the imaging examinations are performed; the sooner lesions are detected, and the patients can be treated.

Giant ethmoid mucocele presenting as an orbital mass

Mucocele is a benign and expansile cystic lesion lined with respiratory mucosa of pseudo stratified columnar epithelium. Mucocele most commonly produces bone destruction within the paranasal sinuses. It mostly involves the frontal sinus followed by ethmoid and rarely sphenoid and maxillary sinuses. We report a case of giant ethmoid mucocele who presented with history of progressive unilateral protrusion of eye since 5 years. CT scan revealed a large mucocele of the ethmoid sinus with orbital extension on the same side. He was successfully treated with endoscopic sinus surgery.

Lacrimal sac compression by an anterior ethmoidal mucocele presenting as a late complication of dacryocystorhinostomy

This was an unusual case of lacrimal sac compression by an anterior ethmoidal mucocele presenting as a late complication of a dacryocystorhinostomy (DCR) that was jointly managed by ophthalmic and ENT surgeons via an endoscopic approach. A 22-year-old lady presented with a 12-month history of a painless lump in her left medial canthus area and a 6-month history of left intermittent epiphora. She had a DCR when she was 15 years old with initial symptom control until recent recurrence. There were no nasal or other eye symptoms. The rest of the eye and nasendoscopic examinations were unremarkable. An MRI scan suggested a dacryocystocele; however, a further CT scan revealed a 1.6 cm cystic lesion consistent with an anterior ethmoidal mucocele compressing the lacrimal sac. An endoscopic left anterior ethmoidectomy with marsupialisation of the mucocele was performed in combination with an endoscopic DCR. She made good post-operative recovery.

[Ethmoid sinus mucocele penetrating to the orbit and anterior cranial fossa - case report]

Paranasal sinus mucocele is the cystic formation lined by inflammatory changed mucoperiosteum. This is slow-growing pathology with a tendency to bone erosion. The symptoms are dependent on the direction of the penetration, and are as follows: increasing headaches, deformations of frontal or orbital region, ophthalmic manifestations such as lacrimation, decreased visual acuity, exophthalmos, ocular movement limitation, diplopia. The most common location of the mucocele is fronto-ethmoid region. The most useful diagnostic tests are a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and a computed tomography (CT) which show the progress of the disease and bone destructions. Surgery is the only method of treatment (external approach or FESS). This paper reports the case of a 74-year-old woman with ethmoid mucocele penetrating into the orbit, frontal sinus and anterior cranial fossa with compression of frontal lobe of the brain. The patient underwent CT and MRI and was treated with endoscopic intranasal marsupialization of the cyst. There are no clinical signs of disease recurrence 7 months after surgery. The endoscopic surgical management in treatment of sinus mucocele is a good alternative to the operation from external approach because of its low invasiveness, low complication risk, rapid healing and good therapeutic effects.

[Intracranial mucocele of the frontal sinus]

We discuss a case of 49-year-old man admitted to our Department with headache and tumor of frontal region since 3 months. We report clinical features and imaging data of mucocele of frontal sinus that penetrates into cranial cavity. The mucocele had damaged anterior and posterior walls of frontal sinus with intracranial penetration. There was intact dura of anterior fosse. External approach with coronal incision was performed, mucocele was evacuated and mucosa was removed. Then frontal sinus was cranialized with reconstruction of anterior wall and finally wide nasal drainage was performed. Intracranial mucocele of the frontal sinus is rere evidence. The key difficulties may be related to dura preservation and reconstruction of anterior wall of frontal sinus.