A rare case of a gooty tophus located at the root of the nose

Abstract

Gouty tophi may be located in the knees, fingers, hands, feet, or in a helix of the ear. It is unusual to find tophi in the temporomandibular joints, sternoclavicular joints, eyelids, tongue, laryngeal cartilages, vocal chords in the case of head and neck lesions, etc. We present a rare case of a gouty tophus located at the root of the nose. A 53-year-old man presented with a 2-year history of a gradually enlarging, painless, hard nodule at the root of the nose. Surgical removal of the nodule enabled identification of a gouty tophus that was histologically characterized by long, needle-shaped monosodium urate crystals. Gouty tophi can often mimic malignant or benign tumors or infection, so it is important to consider the possibility of gouty tophi in tumors in head and neck lesions.