The Nasal Hemangioma

Hemangioma is a disease of head and neck commonly, but its presence in the nasal cavity or sinus is rare. It is a form of benign tumour of vascular origin consisting of predominantly blood vessels. It can be categorized into capillary, cavernous and mixed type in accordance to its histopathology features. Retrospectively, we reviewed five cases of nasal hemangioma presenting at University Kebangsaan Malaysia Medical Center (UKMMC) between September 2007 and May 2015. Information on the patients age, gender, ethnicity, clinical symptoms, imaging findings (if available), treatment modalities were collected retrospectively for analysis. Five patients were analysed. Females were more affected than male with ratio of 4:1. All patients presented with unilateral lobular capillary hemangioma of the nasal cavity with 60 % (3/5) of the lesions on the right side and 40 % (2/5) on the left side. The common symptoms at presentation were epitaxis and nasal obstruction (5/5, 100 %), followed by rhinorrhea (3/5, 60 %) and facial pain (1/5, 20 %). All the patients underwent a surgical excision of the hemangioma. The five patients had no recurrence on subsequent follow ups. Computed tomography of paranasal sinuses can be performed to exclude bony erosions. Endoscopic sinus haemangioma excision provide good visualisation and better outcomes. In conclusion, nasal hemangioma should always be differential diagnosis for nasal lesions and surgical excision is still the preferred first line treatment.