[Lethal aspergillosis of the paranasal sinuses (author's transl)]

A 73-year-old farmer developed both blindness of his left eye and a 20 kg loss of weight within 3 months. A protrusion of his left eyebulb was observed, which suggested the retrobulbar growth of a tumor. Histologic examinations of several biopsies from the paranasal sinuses evidenced polypoid tissue with signs of chronic inflammation, ulceration, and fungus infection. The patient died in cerebral coma. The autopsy revealed a destruction of the cranial base by a chronic mycocenic osteomyelitis, a frontal lobe abscess, and a fungus invasion of the internal carotid artery with circumscribed thrombosis of this vessel and adjacent encephalomalazie. The fungus was identified morphologically as aspergillus, a rare differential diagnosis to paranasal malignancies.