Nasal and Sinus Tumors
Nasal and Sinus tumors often present unique treatment challenges related to the complex and important anatomic structures surrounding the sinus cavities. State of the art technology and instruments are utilized by the physicians at Arizona Sinus Center to decrease post-operative healing times, improve functional outcomes and decrease complications.
Computerized surgical navigation, specialized endoscopes and a new generation of sinus instruments are utilized. For patients with nasal or sinus cancer, we often work closely with our colleagues in oncology, neurosurgery, head and neck cancer surgery and prosthodontics to provide outstanding multi-disciplinary care. Our surgeons at the Arizona Sinus Center have experience treating the following nasal, sinus and anterior skull base tumors: inverting papilloma (Schneiderian papilloma), juvenile nasopharyngeal angiofibroma, hemangiopericytoma, ossifying fibroma, osteoma, fibrous dysplasia, hemangioma, schwannoma, meningioma, pleomorphic adenoma, pituitary adenoma, lymphoma, esthesioneuroblastoma (olfactory neuroblastoma), adenocarcinoma, squamous cell carcinoma and melanoma.
Endoscopic resection of skull base cancers must be carefully considered in the setting of a multidisciplinary tumor board or team (medical oncologist, radiation oncologist, head and neck surgeon, endoscopic skull base surgeon, neurosurgeon). Generous tumor margins are generally not obtained with the endoscopic technique and this must be accounted for in the overall management of the patient’s disease. Furthermore, the endoscopic approach to anterior skull base tumors is a newer technique compared to the external craniofacial resection. This limits the longitudinal data we have allowing us to predict the prognosis of a patient undergoing endoscopic resection of a malignant tumor.
Our physicians have experience with other conditions which are not true tumors but can similarly affect the sinuses and skull base. These conditions include: mucocele, encephalocele, meningocele and Rathke’s cleft cyst.
Our surgeons at the Arizona Sinus Center are part of a multidisciplinary team which takes care of sinus and skull base tumors at the Barrow Neurological Institute Skull Base Center. They also regularly team with our neurosurgery colleagues at Banner University Medical Center Phoenix (Good Sam) on patients with complex sinus and anterior skull base disorders.