INTRODUCTION: Nasosinusal polyposis is a degenerative disease of the mucosa with the formation of multiple polypoid structures in the nasal cavities and facial sinuses whose physiopathological mechanisms are not well understood. STUDY DESIGN: Clinical prospective. AIM AND MATERIAL AND METHOD: In order to contribute to the understanding of the factors involved in the pathogenesis of nasal polyps we decided to study the histology and ultrastructure of the polyps in 17 patients with polyposis. The patients were divided into two groups: allergic (5 patients) and non-allergic (12 patients). RESULTS: A normal respiratory mucosa covering the surface of the epithelium was detected in eight cases, squamous metaplasia in four, different epithelial types in three, atypical respiratory epithelium in one, and absence of mucosa in one. We observed 14 cases of polyps of the fibro-inflammatory type, one case of seromucinous gland hyperplasia, and two cases of fibrotic polyps. CONCLUSIONS: The patients presented rates of positive skin test equal to or higher than those of the general population. However, there were no histological or ultrastructural differences between the polyps of allergic and non-allergic patients, suggesting that allergy is a contributing but not a causal factor in the physiopathology of nasosinusal polyposis.
polyposis; chronic inflammatory disease; ultrastructural alterations
