Minimally invasive treatment of the nasal inverted papilloma

The purpose of this work is to evaluate our results in the treatment of the nasal inverted papillomas with an endoscopic approach using a retrospective case series.

Between 1993 and 2000 we treated 27 patients with nasal inverted papillomas. All patients underwent endoscopic nasal surgery under general anesthesia. None of the inverted papillomas extended outside of the paranasal sinuses. All tissue samples underwent polymerase chain reaction and hybridization in situ to detect genetic sequences of the human papilloma virus and Epstein Barr virus.

The study population consisted of 16 men and 11 women with a median age of 52 years (range, 22-77 years). Ten patients (37%) had undergone a previous nasal surgery. The median follow-up was 5 years (range, 2-8 years). None of the patients presented with bilateral nasal involvement or a synchronous carcinoma. Seven patients underwent an additional surgical approach (two endoscopic approaches via a Caldwel-Luc approach, four sublabial approaches via a Caldwel-Luc approach, and one external ethmoidectomy). There were no surgical complications. Two patients (7%) had recurrent papilloma 4 and 6 years after surgery and again underwent endoscopic resection. The amplification both by polymerase chain reaction and hybridization in situ for human papilloma virus and Epstein Barr virus were negative in the specimens from all patients.

According to the literature and our own experience, we believe that the initial surgical management of primary and recurrent inverted papillomas limited to the nasal cavity and paranasal sinuses should be endoscopic sinus surgery.