Presentation of choanal atresia in Saudi children

OBJECTIVE: To present data of cases with choanal atresia (CA) from Saudi patients, and to compare them to the data from the international literature.

METHODS: A retrospective analysis of the data available from the files of 37 consecutive patients with the diagnosis of CA at King Abdul-Aziz University Hospital, Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia between January 1999 and December 2005. This involved reviewing the age, gender, presenting symptoms, associated anomalies, surgical intervention, and outcomes.

RESULTS: Twenty-three of our cases had unilateral and 14 had bilateral CA. Strikingly, 83% of unilateral CA involved the right side. In our study, we found the female to male ratio to be 2:1. Approximately, 95% of the cases had mixed bony and membranous CA. Thirty-two percent of the cases had other associated congenital anomalies. Most of our cases had their surgical intervention by endoscopic technique.

CONCLUSION: Choanal atresia is a rare anomaly. In Saudi children, female is more commonly affected than male. There is a striking rate of involvement of the right side in the cases of unilateral CA.