We have found the overall mortality rate directly related to IFS to be 18%. The rate is higher for diabetic patients than for patients with hematologic causes for their immunosuppression. This is likely because of the higher index of suspicion and early diagnosis and treatment of patients with neutropenia and a less-fulminant, slower-progressing form of IFS from Aspergillus, apparently a less virulent fungus than Mucor. Intracranial involvement and failure to recover from neutropenia are the factors that led to poor prognosis in this series.
Patients with acute fulminant IFS present with similar sinus symptoms; however, there is a trend toward a greater prevalence of orbital and neurological symptoms in patients with Mucor versus Aspergillus. Long-term orbital and neurological morbidity is more prevalent in patients with Mucor compared with Aspergillus. These data suggest that the presence of orbital and neurological symptoms at presentation warrants more aggressive surgical intervention because of the likelihood of Mucor.
A 73-year-old man with a history of epiphora, discharge from the left eye, and left-sided nasal congestion underwent external dacryocystorhinostomy for nasolacrimal duct obstruction. The procedure revealed bony erosion of the majority of the lacrimal sac fossa and a large papillomatous mass filling the lacrimal sac and nasolacrimal duct. Inverted papilloma was diagnosed via biopsy. A subsequent orbitotomy with combined endoscopic medial maxillectomy was performed to remove the mass. This case illustrates the importance of including inverted papilloma, a benign but invasive neoplasm, in the differential diagnosis of nasolacrimal duct obstruction.
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