Clinical manifestations of choanal atresia in infancy

The clinical features of 41 infants with various types of nasal obstruction were reviewed to study the correlation between the degree of nasal obstruction and clinical manifestations. Twenty-one subjects had bilateral choanal atresia/stenosis; 12 had unilateral choanal atresia/stenosis, and eight who were referred with suspected choanal atresia had a simple inflammatory nasal obstruction. Patients with bilateral choanal obstruction and patients with unilateral choanal obstruction or rhinitis showed no differences in clinical picture or in referral age. Many infants with either unilateral or bilateral choanal obstruction had one or more symptoms not fully relieved after surgical repair, although the choanae were widely patent. At long-term follow-up the surviving patients showed spontaneous recovery and good nasal respiration. Overall, five patients died. Since the common syndrome appeared to be related to a dysfunction of the autonomic nervous system, we conclude that any type of nasal obstruction may exacerbate or precipitate an underlying maturational autonomic disturbance.