Congenital Anosmia Secondary to Olfactory Cleft Malformation

Olfactory Cleft Disease: An Analysis of 13 Cases

“…Two patients of this series had a congenital anosmia related to a bilateral olfactory cleft malformation. To our knowledge, these cases are the second and the third reported in the literature and were very similar to the first described by Weinberger et al 7 The family history and medical background were unremarkable in our cases. The CT scan revealed a mild degree of thickening of the nasal mucosa in 1 case, which had been previously reported in patients with congenital anosmia.…”

“…18 . As suggested by Weinberger et al, 7 malformation of the olfactory cleft might be associated with an embryologic event that occurred earlier than olfactory epithelium development. Consequently, anosmia might be secondary to a sensory or a neural olfactory disorder and no effective treatment could be purposed.…”

“…4 Olfaction dysfunction secondary to a pathologic process of the olfactory cleft, a disorder termed olfactory cleft disease, has until now received little attention. [5][6][7] The aim of this study was to better define the clinical symptoms and radiologic findings of this entity.…”

Isolated and syndromic forms of congenital anosmia

“…However, in rare cases anosmia secondary to choanal atresia is not recognized until later in life (29). Also, there have been reports of patients with congenital abnormalities of the olfactory cleft that present with anosmia and are otherwise normal (30, 31).…”