Int Arch Otorhinolaryngol 2014; 18 - a2486
DOI: 10.1055/s-0034-1388944

Silent Sinus Syndrome

Larissa Claret de Lima 1, Camillus Magalhaes Carneiro dos Santos 1, Paulo Henrique Bicalho Barcelos 1, Rita de Cassia Soler 1, Thiago Andrade Fraga 1, Torcuato Sanchez Rojas Neto 1
  • 1Hospital Nossa Senhora de Lourdes

Introduction: The silent sinus syndrome is characterized by chronic atelectasis of maxillary sinus. An important manifestation is the presence of ocular asymmetry without visual compromising. The etiology is still unknown and the treatment is eminently chirurgical.

Objectives: This study aims to report a case of silent sinus syndrome with atypical symptoms and their treatment adopted.

Case Report: A 29-year-old patient (E. F. S.), presenting pressure right hemifacial 7 years ago, with no more symptoms and previous investigations. The result of rhinoscopy was pale mucosa with large amount of hyaline rhinorrhea. Computed tomographic scan of the paranasal sinuses, showing a reduction of the diameter of the right maxillary sinus with obliteration in drainage ostium of the right maxillary sinus. Patient was submitted to sinusectomy transmaxillary right, evolving with improvement of symptoms.

Conclusion: The silent sinus syndrome is a term used to describe a reduction in volume of the maxillary sinus and changes in imaging studies demonstrating centripetal displacement of its walls and accumulation of thick mucus. Patients with this change do not always evolve with enophthalmia and most of them are associated with sinonasal symptoms. The syndrome represents a small subgroup of patients with chronic maxillary atelectasis, whose characteristics are the absence of symptoms, the nasosinusal, wall deformity, and enophthalmia not associated with trauma. The silent sinus syndrome is an entity that must be recognize by the otorhinolaryngologist, being the endonasal endoscopic surgery efficient on its treatment.