Endoscopy ; Humans ; Pterygopalatine Fossa ; surgery

Chronic invasive fungal sinusitis is a slowly destructive process that most commonly affects the ethmoid and sphenoid sinus, but may involve any paranasal sinus. The disease typically has a time course over 12 weeks. Pathologically, it is characterized as a dense accumulation of hyphae, occasional vascular invasion and sparse inflammatory reaction with involvement of local structures. Aspergillus fumigates is the most common pathogen. In this report, we present a patient with chronic invasive fungal sinusitis invading pterygopalatine fossa, which was presented as only mild thickening of posterior wall of maxillary sinus at initial CT scan.
Aspergillus ; Humans ; Hyphae ; Maxillary Sinus ; Pterygopalatine Fossa ; Sinusitis ; Sphenoid Sinus

There are several options for the management of patients with locally recurred nasopharyngeal carcinoma after irradiation. Many patients can benefit from reirradiation but the complications of high dose irradiation for the second time are often severe and unbearable. In some patients, the recurred lesion may persist even after the reirradiation. Obtaining an adequate exposure of the nasopharynx for an oncologic surgical procedure has been challenging because of its surgical inaccessibility. However, improvements in the surgical approaches to the nasopharynx and paranasopharynx have been made in recent years. Two illustrative cases, in which we performed salvage surgery, are presented in this article. Using the maxillary swing approach, we removed the recurrent nasopharyngeal tumor in a 43 year old female patient. The reassembly of the osseous and soft tissues was not difficult and the associated morbidity was acceptable. In a 19 year old male patient, subtemporal-preauricular infratemporal fossa approach was performed with low morbidity for the removal of tumor recurred at the pterygopalatine fossa.
Adult ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Nasopharynx ; Pterygopalatine Fossa ; Young Adult

The surgical approach to juvenile nasopharyngeal angiofibroma (JNA) is determined by the topographic localization, the extent of the tumor, and the experience of the surgical team.1)2) Current surgical options include lateral rhinotomy, midfacial degloving, transpalatal, infratemporal fossa, and transnasal approaches.2)3) Recently, the transnasal endoscopic surgical approach has sometimes been applied to treat benign tumors such as JNA.1)3)4) Transnasal endoscopic excision of a case of JNA limited to the left posterior nasal cavity, nasopharynx, and anterior pterygopalatine fossa was performed successfully on a 17-year old male patient. An endoscopic follow-up at postoperative two years did not indicate residual tumor or recurrence.
Adolescent ; Angiofibroma* ; Follow-Up Studies ; Humans ; Male ; Nasal Cavity ; Nasopharynx ; Neoplasm, Residual ; Pterygopalatine Fossa ; Recurrence

Endoscopy ; methods ; Female ; Humans ; Meningocele ; surgery ; Middle Aged ; Pterygopalatine Fossa ; surgery

With the increasing use of stereotactic radiosurgery, recent reports have suggested that stereotactic radiosurgery may induce secondary malignancies. While the risk of secondary malignancy after conventional radiotherapy is well known, its development after stereotactic radiosurgery has been reported in only a few cases. Here we present the case of a 56-year-old female with visual disturbance of sudden onset. She underwent trans-sphenoidal surgery for a pituitary adenoma 13 years earlier. Imaging studies revealed a newly developed pituitary mass invading the right carvenous sinus. Gross total resection of the tumor was performed using a trans-sphenoidal and pterygopalatine fossa approach. The histological diagnosis was pituitary epithelioid osteosarcoma. Clinicians should be aware of the rare occurrence of radiation-induced pituitary sarcoma as a potentially fatal late complication of stereotactic radiosurgery.
Diagnosis ; Female ; Humans ; Middle Aged ; Osteosarcoma* ; Pituitary Neoplasms* ; Pterygopalatine Fossa ; Radiosurgery ; Radiotherapy ; Sarcoma

In neurofibroma, not only schwann cells but also perineural cell, endoneural cells, and fibroblastoid cells create the tumor mass. Simple, isolated neurofibroma are common in the skin but rare in the eye. Simple isolated neurofibroma of the eye are common in the superior orbit, and a case with an isolated neurofibroma of the orbit and maxillary antrum has been reported. The authors have experienced a 57-year-old male patient who complained exophthalmos on his left eye for 2 years. The neurofibroma of the orbit and pterygopalatine fossa was confirmed and reported with a review of literature.
Exophthalmos ; Humans ; Male ; Maxillary Sinus ; Middle Aged ; Neurofibroma* ; Orbit* ; Pterygopalatine Fossa* ; Schwann Cells ; Skin

Immunoglobulin G4-related disease (IgG4-RD) is an immune-mediated systemic condition affecting diverse organs which lately has been increasingly recognized. A 40-year-old male presents intractable trigeminal neuralgia lasting more than a year even with numerous pain medication, which lead further evaluation. The infiltrative lesion was found involving left pterygopalatine fossa where maxillary nerve locates. We report a case of IgG4-RD with a sole manifestation of intractable unilateral trigeminal neuralgia which was improved by steroid treatment.
Adult ; Facial Pain ; Humans ; Immunoglobulins ; Male ; Maxillary Nerve ; Pterygopalatine Fossa ; Trigeminal Neuralgia

It is well-knwon that computed tomography (CT) is useful in detecting accurately the location, extent, erosion and relationshlp of angiofibroma to surrounding structures such as pterygopalatine fossa, It is well-known that computed tomography (CT) is useful in detecting accurately the location, extent, erosion and relatiohship of angiofibroma to surrounding structures such as pterygopalatine fossa, sphenoid slnus, and etc. CT of 20 patients with juvenile angiofibroma, which were examined for 5 years from Feburary, 1979 to May. 1984 at Department of Radiology, Seoul National University Hospital, were retrospectively analized. The results were as follows: 1. AII 20 patients of juvenile angiofibroma had tumors in nasopharynx and posterior nasal cavity showing homogeneously dense.enhancing soft tissue mass on CT. There was extension of the tumor from nasopharyhx and posterior nas.al cavity into Pílranasal sinus (60%, 12/20), pterygopalatine fossa (55%, 11/20), infratemporal fossa (30%, 6/20), posterior orbit (10%, 2/20) and cranial cavity (15%, 3/20). 2. Angiography usually adds Iittle diagnostic information, but is still needed to identify the precise source of blood supply to the tumor, and to perform the pre-operative embolization. The use of CT has deferred angiography until just before surgery, permitting embolization at optimal time. 3. CT is almost always necessary to reveal accurately the full extent of the tumor, especially intracranial space in the axial and coronal planes with contrast enhancement. CT is useful both in diagnosis as a guide to angiography and in planning the adequate thereapy of juvenile angiogibroma.
Angiofibroma ; Angiography ; Diagnosis ; Humans ; Nasal Cavity ; Nasopharynx ; Orbit ; Pterygopalatine Fossa ; Retrospective Studies ; Seoul

As an important landmark, the posterolateral wall of maxillary sinus can help to locate numbers of significant signs such as maxillary artery and its branches, maxillary nerve and infraorbital nerve, infratemporal fossa and pterygopalatine fossa etc. in the endoscopic surgery for paranasal sinuses and lateral skull base. This article reviewed related researches about the anatomy and endoscopic surgery of posterolateral wall of maxillary sinus.
Endoscopy ; Humans ; Maxillary Artery ; Maxillary Nerve ; Maxillary Sinus ; anatomy & histology ; Nasal Surgical Procedures ; Pterygopalatine Fossa