Primary cancer of the sphenoid sinus is rare, and even if tumors are found in the sphenoid sinus, they are mostly those from the epipharynx or other nasal sinuses.
In this report, one case of primary cancer of the sphenoid sinus was described.
The patient was 71 years old female, whose chief complaints were blepharoptosis, visual disturbance of her right eye, and tumors on her right neck, Other clinical symptoms were headache, right otalgia and motor disturbance of all muscles of right eye. No other nasal symptom than bleeding was observed. A small papillate and polypoid tumor was found in the olfactory cleft by anterior rhinoscopy, but not by posterior rhinos copy.
It was revealed by operation that this had originated from the sphenoid sinus, destroyed the Turkish saddle, pushed to the dura mater, and infiltrated to the pterygopalatine fossa and the submucosa of nasopharyngeal cavity.
Histological examination showed that this tumor was squamous cell carcinoma of papillary structure.
Distinctive features in this case was the initial headache, and the only nasal symptom was bleeding which appeared in the last stage. Eye symptoms such as motor disturbance of all muscles of the eye and visual disturbance were also conspicuous.
