To describe three rare cases of nasolacrimal relapse of nasopharyngeal carcinoma, and to discuss the route of tumour spread from nasopharynx to lacrimal system as well as the relevant computed tomography findings.
We report a rare tumour of the nasopharynx- papillary adenocarcinoma. This is usually of low grade and certainly in out patient it behaved so. It is even rarer to have this tumour in a patient with Turner's syndrome in whom there is a high incidence of gynaecological malignancy. It has not previously been documented and the occurrence in this patient is probably coincidental.
Five rare cases of nasopharyngeal carcinoma with optic nerve involvement are reported. Computerised Tomographic Scan (CT Scan) studies were performed in four of them. Evidence of intracranial spread of the tumour, from the roof of the fossa of Rosenmuller to the apex of the orbit through the cavernous sinus, was noted in three patients. In one of them there was extracranial extension of the tumour, to the orbit through the posterior ethmoid.
We report an extremely rare case of nasopharyngeal carcinoma presenting as a lateral neck abscess complicated by endogenous bacterial endophthalmitis. Endogenous bacterial endophthalmitis complicating a neck abscess has not been reported in the recent English literature. We discuss the possible pathophysiology of neck abscess as a presenting feature of nasopharyngeal carcinoma, and the relationship between the parapharyngeal abscess and endogenous bacterial endophthalmitis.