Recurrent epistaxis from an intranasal glomus tumor: the 22nd case report

The case of a 66-year-old Thai woman who was treated at King Chulalongkorn Memorial Hospital due to recurrent epistaxis for two years is presented. Her physical examination revealed a 0.7-cm tumor mass on the right nasal septum. A biopsy was subsequently done and the tissue was sent for pathological examination. The lesion was then diagnosed as "glomus tumor of the nasal septum". Histologically, the tumor was rather well-circumscribed and located in the submucosal region. The neoplastic cells were uniform, round to ovoid in shape and contained bland-looking, finely chromatic nuclei and moderate amount of cytoplasm with ill-defined cell borders. These cells were intervened by tortuous vascular structures. Immunohistochemically, the tumor cells were strongly reactive to smooth muscle actin and negative to cytokeratin and S-100 protein. A glomus tumor is rare in the sinonasal region. So far, there have been only 21 reported cases in the literature. Almost all cases of sinonasal glomus tumor are benign and are usually cured by complete excision.