Rare case of a concealed kind of supernumerary nostril: a report

The authors have reported one conceal case of the supernumerary nostril in a 19-years-old man which is misdiagnosed as a simple small nasal skin pit. Ordinary surgical excision led to recurrent infection of the lesion postoperatively and was eventually required secondary surgery and the lesion was finally confirmed by pathological biopsy as a trinasal nostrils.

The small pit ranging 3 mm in diameter was found when he was born and had no increase in size significantly, nor discovered fluid or pus but a few sebaceous-like secretions. There are no similar diseases in the family. It was diagnosed as a simple skin pit malformation. So, they decided to remove the pit. During the operation of the skin pit resection, we found that there was a sinus paralleling the nasal dorsum which was about 2 cm in length, but the patient refused further surgery and the incision was sutured as a palliative seeking better solutions.

Within 1-year post-surgery, the incision area was repeatedly infected with a subcutaneous abscess. CT scan with contrast medium infused into the sinus showed that there was no obvious deformity in the nasal bone and skull base. The diameter of the sinus is about 3 mm wide and its depth is about 2 cm. And, the sinus and the nasal cavity are not connected (Gif.1).

They concluded with the diagnosis of a supernumerary nostril.

Cite this article

Li, C., Pang, Q., Zhou, H. et al. The misdiagnose and treatment of a concealed kind of supernumerary nostril: a case report and review. BMC Surg 22, 227 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12893-022-01679-9