Silent sinus syndrome (First Case Report, Saudi Arabia with recommendation)

Silent sinus syndrome is a rare disorder that presents a diagnostic challenge, most of the patients with this syndrome present with ophthalmological complaints without any nasal sinus symptoms, and it has a painless course and slow development. The syndrome can be diagnosed clinically and confirmed radiologically, and CT imaging is considered the gold standard for its diagnosis. The classical radiographic findings are opacification and collapse of the sinus walls. Functional endoscopic sinus surgery (FESS) is the standard gold treatment of choice to arrest the progression of the disease.

A case report of a 37-years-old-female who was complaining of severe throbbing pain since 2009, is presented here where the diagnosis of SSS was obtained in 2018, this delay in diagnosing the situation had affected the patient lifestyle tremendously.

Accordingly, knowledge of the signs and features of SSS can result in an accurate diagnosis. Suspected cases of silent sinus syndrome require prompt ear, nose, and throat referral for consideration of definitive diagnosis and surgical management. Nasal endoscopy and clinical evaluation are also essential for the diagnosis.

Our recommendation is to consider SSS as a differential diagnosis for patients with spontaneous enophthalmos and hypoglobus, even in the absence of maxillary sinus opacification. Moreover, encourage all the specialists in the medical and the dental field to communicate well together in cases like this.