A Case of Rhinosporidiosis and Concomitant Inverted Papilloma - A Review of the Literature

Rhinosporidiosis is a chronic granulomatous disease of mucous membranes and is endemic in Southern India and Sri Lanka, though there are infrequent reports of the disease elsewhere in the world with Rhinosporidium seeberi identified as aetiological agent. Sino nasal Inverted papilloma constitutes only 0.5-4% of all nasal tumours and may be associated with human papilloma virus, chronic inflammation, allergy and occupational exposures. We present a case in which these two rare pathologies presented synchronously in a patient presenting with unilateral nasal obstruction secondary to nasal mass. This is the first case report of rhinosporidium in a white Caucasian patient without any history of travelling to endemic area. Concomitant presence of inverted papilloma makes it interesting and supports the inflammatory theory as a cause for inverted papilloma.