Background: Fungus ball is an extramucosal fungal proliferation which completely fills one or more paranasal sinuses. Localization in the nasal cavity is extremely rare and can be confusing with rhinolithiasis. Case presentation: A 39-year-old female patient was referred to the ENT department for a left nasal obstruction that was associated with homolateral anterior rhinorrhoea. The diagnosis was an isolated fungal ball of the nasal cavity. Conclusions: The location of the fungus ball in the nasal cavity is rare and should prompt discussion of other calcified masses in the nasal cavity.
Telementoring shows promise as a supportive tool to enhance confidence and comfort in endoscopic sinus surgery training. This study’s remote guidance model demonstrates the potential of a scalable, low-barrier solution to expand access to expert mentor- ship in surgical education, particularly in resource-limited or geographically remote settings.
Within primary ciliary dyskinesia, there are different ultrastructural and motility phenotypes. Inspection for cilia motility with conventional light microscopy should not be used to exclude diagnosis. Tools such as nitric oxide, genetics, electron microscopy, and clinical history should be used.
Background: The self-administered odour questionnaire (SAOQ), consisting of 20 odours familiar to Japanese people, is proposed as a scoring system for the quantitative evaluation of sense of smell. We examined the correlations between the SAOQ and the standard olfactory test covered by insurance in Japan and evaluated the usefulness of the SAOQ in patients with olfactory dysfunction (OD). Methodology: Data from 3048 patients undergoing treatment for OD between June 2005 and September 2021 were retrospectively analysed. The causative diseases of OD were identified. Correlations between the SAOQ score and olfactory detection and recognition thresholds (DT and RT) were investigated using olfaction tests. The characteristics of each itemised odour of the SAOQ for each causative disease were analysed. Results: Causative diseases of OD were: chronic rhinosinusitis (43%), post-viral (25%), post-traumatic (6%), central nervous system dysfunction (2%), peripheral nervous system dysfunction (2%), congenital (1%), psychogenic (1%), or idiopathic (20%). The SAOQ score correlated with DT and RT in both the pre- and post-treatment stages. The median SAOQ scores significantly declined with RT severity. Analysis of the itemised odour scores of the SAOQ showed that ‘strawberry’ was the most declined-odour, while ‘perfume’ was the most preserved-odour. Conclusions: The SAOQ is a useful scoring interview system for evaluating sense of smell.
In January 2020, 14 medical staff members engaged in endona- sal endoscopic pituitary surgery at a hospital in Wuhan, China, were infected with a novel infection, coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) (1). Since the nasal mucosa is a potential source of COVID-19 infection (2), close attention has been paid to infection control in rhinologic surgery during the COVID-19 pandemic (3). There are also many reports from other countries on COVID-19 infection among otolaryngologists, and these reports suggest that the risk of COVID-19 transmission is particularly high in rhinologic surgery (4,5). On the other hand, Sanmark et al. showed that the observed aerosol exposure during rhinologic surgery is lower or similar to exposures during coughing (6).
