[Rhinosporidiosis: a study of 33 cases diagnosed using biopsies at the Central Hospital of Maputo, since 1944 through 1986].

A statistical review of the archives of the Laboratory of Pathologic Anatomy of Maputo Central Hospital is made with the view to determine the frequency of occurrence of rhinosporidiosis in biopsies in the years 1944-86. Diagnosis was made based on the specific microscopic picture shown by the lesions induced by Rhinosporidium seeberi. Of 91,000 reports only 33 cases of the disease were found, which accounts for 0.036% of the total biopsies made in the department. Tissular examinations showed that lesions always appear as polypoid masses lined with hyperplastic epithelium, with an intense inflammatory reaction involving the sporangia, which in slides appear as double-membrane spheres with the occasional rupture-freed spores. It was found that in the series studied the disease appeared most frequently in the period ranging from 10 to 19 years of age, with no sex prevalence. General statistics indicate that the greatest damage was found in bulbar conjunctiva and that location in nostrils was the most frequently found in the age group with the youngest people.