Mucous Glands in Nasal Polyps

Abstract

• A total of 102 nasal polyps from 52 patients were stained by the PAS-alcian blue whole-mount method, and mucous glands were studied quantitatively. Glands were found in all polyps but in many of them only a few. The density is very low, considerably lower than in the nasal mucosa. The glands are tubular, of different shape and size, but differ widely from those in the nose and are formed from the surface epithelium after the polyp has attained a certain size. They do not issue from the nasal mucosa. The glands degenerate and distend. Thus, cysts in the polyp are degenerated, mucus-filled glands. (Arch Otolaryngol 103:407-413, 1977)