UNILATERAL PANSINAL MUCOCELE SIMULATING A MALIGNANT NEOPLASM: Report of a Case

Abstract

MUCOCELES of the paranasal sinuses and their suppurating counterparts, pyoceles, are defined and discussed in standard textbooks on otolaryngology, and the reports of cases in the literature now number in the hundreds. Mucoceles originating in the sphenoid sinus are rare, and a true mucocele of the maxillary sinus is uncommon. For this reason our case in which a true mucocele was found in the antrum associated with a mucocele on the same side, arising in the sphenoid sinus with extensive erosion of the ethmoid roof and destruction of the sella turcica, seems of sufficient interest to be recorded. REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE Wilkerson¹ credited Nicolai,² of Strasbourg, France, with the first published report of a case of mucocele in 1725. Linthicum and co-workers³ stated that Garreau⁴ first called attention to this condition in 1881 and that Rollet⁵ introduced the term mucocele in 1896. Turner⁶