A case of silent sinus syndrome following a history of multiple facial traumas

Post-traumatic Sinus Syndrome, Proposal for a New Clinical Entity (CDR Syndrome) as Variant of the Silent Sinus Syndrome: Systematic Review and Case Series

The diagnostic criteria for silent sinus syndrome (SSS) are still controversial, especially for the post-traumatic/surgery cases that are, nowadays, excluded from the diagnosis of SSS because lacking of spontaneously. We present a systematic review of the last 10 years and our case series of SSS associated to previous trauma/surgery, proposing a new interpretation of SSS. In this work, following the PRISMA guide lines for systematic reviews, we collected 86 articles published on PubMed, Cochrane Library and Medline Plus since 2013 to 2023 about SSS. We divided them in six groups forming the structure of the review: (1) epidemiology, (2) clinical presentation, (3) imaging, (4) etiopathogenesis, (5) sss and craniofacial trauma and (6) treatment. We reported two explicative clinical cases: two men of 34 and 37 years old, involved in motorcycle accident in 2020 and 2014, respectively, and underwent surgery. They came back in 2023 referring diplopia documented by Hess-Lancaster test. CT-scan reported two clear cases of SSS. Basing on what is reported in literature, and basing on our experience, the post-traumatic/surgery SSS are more frequent than the idiopathic ones. Our proposal is to considered them as two individual entities. We propose to adopt the name of Post-traumatic sinus syndrome, or CDR syndrome (Catalfamo-De Rinaldis), for all cases that respect four specific diagnostic criteria reported into the text.

Etiology, Early Diagnosis and Proper Treatment of Silent Sinus Syndrome Based on Review of the Literature and Own Experience

PURPOSE

The authors' aim was to review the literature in terms of the etiology of the syndrome, the frequency of Silent Sinus Syndrome (SSS) and surgical procedure, as well as to present their own experience.

METHODS

The authors used PubMed, Medline, and Science Direct websites to find and review the most significant papers related to SSS. The case reports of SSS published between 2010 and 2020 were reviewed. A retrospective case review of 8 patients with SSS treated at the authors' departments was done.

RESULTS

The silent sinus syndrome has been reported in both children and adults. It is relatively rare and should be differentiated from congenital sinus hypoplasia or atelectasis. It most often affects the maxillary sinus. SSS is usually diagnosed when facial asymmetry or vision problems occur. Late diagnosis requires endoscopic sinus surgery, involving orbital wall reconstruction. The etiology of the syndrome, including the role of bacterial flora found in the sinuses, is unclear.

CONCLUSION

Early diagnosis of SSS enables avoiding orbital complications and limits surgical intervention to endoscopic surgery. Further research into bacteriology may help to understand the pathophysiology of the silent sinus syndrome.