Allergic fungal sinusitis: clinicopathological characteristics

Allergic fungal sinusitis is a comparatively new disease entity in paranasal sinus mycoses. It is not a very rare condition, but diagnosis is difficult to establish. Of 28 consecutive cases of allergic nasal polyposis during a 2-year period, 11 patients had allergic fungal sinusitis and the diagnosis was based on the presence of type I hypersensitivity, eosinophilic mucus without tissue invasion of fungi on histopathology and detection of septate hyphae on direct microscopy. On culture, Aspergillus flavus was isolated from nine patients and A. fumigatus and A. niger from one patient each. Among patients with allergic fungal sinusitis, five had asthma, four had proptosis, of whom two had impaired vision, and all 11 patients had nasal obstruction. Eight patients described a history of recurrence. All patients underwent surgical clearance of the diseased sinuses and were given post-operative topical steroids to prevent recurrence.