Pneumocele as a rare differential diagnosis in trigeminal irritation

Maxillary Sinus Pneumocele Presenting as Aesthetic Deformity: A Case Report With Literature Review

“…It may usually be presented as facial symptoms including slowly changing facial contours over long periods and dull maxillary cheek pain or pressure on the affected area. 4 Other associated symptoms are included in eye symptoms such as exophthalmos and increased scleral show and nasal symptoms, especially unilateral nasal obstruction owing to the displacement of neighboring structures. 5,6 Maxillary cheek pain or pressure may be caused by irritation of the maxillary division of trigeminal nerve (trigeminal irritation) due to the mass effect or direct pressure on the nerve.…”

“…Pneumocele requires differential diagnosis with mucocele and benign or malignant neoplasms. 4 In addition, trigeminal neuralgia should be taken into account. 4 Surgery is curative.…”

“…Recently, according to the development of various endoscopes and endoscopic sinus surgery since 1990s, the decompression through endoscopic endonasal approach with creation of an adequate nasoantral window is the method of choice that may enable good ventilation of the sinus and relief of the entrapped air. 4,5 However, clinical symptoms of the reports treated with endonasal approach were cheek pain or pressure and eye symptoms, not facial asymmetry. There is no standard operation technique for the correction of facial deformity due to the rarity of previously reported cases.…”

“…1,2 Maxillary sinus pneumocele was first described by Noyek et al in 1974, followed by only 10 additional cases. 1,[3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12] Maxillary sinus pneumocele is usually asymptomatic over long periods but may cause significant clinical symptoms related to compression of adjacent structures such as facial pain and aesthetic deformities cause by the locally gradual expansion. [4][5][6] In this article, we describe the case of maxillary sinus pneumocele presented with both right facial pain and aesthetic deformity with literature reviews focusing on clinical symptoms and surgical approach.…”

Post-Traumatic Pneumocele of the Frontal Sinus

“…A pneumocele is characterized by the pathological expansion of the aerated sinus lined by normal mucosa. Pneumoceles most commonly affect the frontal sinus, followed in frequency by the sphenoid, ethmoid and maxillary sinuses (1). The etiology of a pneumocele is still unclear, but it might occur after head trauma, nasal polyposis, sinus surgery, chronic sinusitis and the formation of a tumor.…”