THE PREVALENCE OF FUNGAL INFECTIONS IN NASAL POLYPOSIS

For many years, it was thought that nasal polyps are small tumors of the nasal or sinusmucosa. however, it is now believed that nasal polyps are formed as a result of frequent local swellingof nasal or sinus mucosa, which enlarge by increasing sub-mucosal edema and then expose to the airpipe and cause some symptoms. however, the main cause of polyp formation is not exactly understood.the prevalence of disease is 1-4% of population. with increasing use of antibiotics, many fungi bothsaprophytes and pathogens are appeared in many diseases. we also cannot rule out the importance offungal infections in large cities because of air pollution. in this study, attempts were made to investigateprevalence of fungal infections in nasal polyposis, and suggest suitable treatment in addition to theroutine one. during 7 months, polyp samples from patients with nasal polyposis were collected. fromthe total amount of samples (50), both direct test with 10% koh and culture with sabouraud’s dextroseagar were performed. in direct test, 42% of samples were positive for fungus. 34% of samples showedfungal colonization in culture, which include 30% aspergillus flavus and 4% aspergillus fumigatus.however, none of invasive fungi were found in pathological lamella. regarding to our results, it seemsthe high prevalence of fungal colonization in nasal polyposis may explain etiological factors, reasons ofgrowth, increasing in numbers, and frequent recurrence of nasal polyps to some extent.