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Case Reports
. 2014 Jan 15;7(2):815-8.
eCollection 2014.

Primary sinonasal tuberculosis confined to the unilateral maxillary sinus

Kyung Yeon Kim  1 , Jung Ho Bae  1 , Jee Soo Park  1 , Seung-Sin Lee  1
Affiliations
Case Reports

Primary sinonasal tuberculosis confined to the unilateral maxillary sinus

Kyung Yeon Kim et al. Int J Clin Exp Pathol. .

Abstract

Extrapulmonary tuberculosis is not rare and occurs mainly in the head and neck region. Cervical tuberculous lymphadenopathy is the most common form of extrapulmonary tuberculosis. Sinonasal tuberculosis is known to occur very rarely due to the protective functions of sinonasal mucosa. Although some signs of sinonasal tuberculosis may be present, such as associated facial abscesses, the symptoms and signs are usually nonspecific. Clinical suspicion is important for timely diagnosis and proper management of sinonasal tuberculosis due to its rarity and nonspecific clinical presentation. We report a case of tuberculosis confined to the unilateral maxillary sinus that was first misdiagnosed as recurrent rhinosinusitis after endoscopic sinus surgery.

Keywords: Tuberculosis; endoscopic sinus surgery; maxillary sinus.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Preoperative pre-enhanced axial paranasal CT scan. It shows a residual soft tissue lesion with mucoperiosteal thickening in the left maxillary and anterior ethmoid sinuses. Hypertrophy of the left maxillary bone was noted.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Histopathological findings of the maxillary sinus mucosa. A: Caseous necrosis is also found. B: Langerhans-type giant cells (black arrow) infiltrate into the diffuse chronic granulomatous inflammatory background. C: A few acid-fast bacilli (arrow head) are stained red in tissue. (A: H & E staining, ×40, B: H & E staining, ×100, C: Ziehl-Neelsen staining, ×200).
Figure 3
Figure 3
Follow up pre-enhanced axial paranasal CT scan. It shows minimal mucoperiosteal thickening in the left maxillary sinus.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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