Follow-up of patients with inverted papilloma of the nasal cavities: computer tomography, video-endoscopy, acoustic rhinometry?

Seventeen patients were operated suffering from unilateral inverted papilloma of the nasal cavities, in one male associated with malignancy. We investigated these patients pre- and post-operatively by clinical examination, video-endoscopy, acoustic rhinometry, and computed tomography (CT). The aim was to find out which technique delivers reliable information about tumour recurrence in follow-up. By these controls three recurrences could be detected in a period of two-years' follow-up. Our results showed that the combination of CT, video-endoscopy and histological examination of biopsies is reliable to detect recurrence of inverted papilloma. To study the possibilities of detecting tumour recurrence by means of acoustic rhinometry, investigations on models of nasal cavities with various shape, size and location of tumour masses were undertaken. A comparison between the results of the model study and the acoustic rhinometric measurements in patients showed that growth of tumour masses can be detected by this method in an early phase under constant conditions such as nasal models. In patients, however, it is not easy to evaluate the absolute size and site of the growing tumour masses, because there are several factors which lead to false-positive interpretations, such as localized inflammations of the mucosa, crusting and nasal secretion and especially the movements of the soft palate. We conclude from our results that acoustic rhinometry does not deliver more information than obtained by video-endoscopy and CT to detect tumour recurrence in the nasal cavity.