Introduction:

Tumors of the nasal cavity and paranasal sinuses are infrequent neoplasms. Their histopathology and clinical characteristics are different from those of other head and neck neoplasms.

Objective:

Carry out a clinical-epidemiological, radiological and anatomopathological characterization of patients aged over 18 years with malignant sinonasal tumors attending a Honduran hospital.

Methods:

A cross-sectional observational descriptive study was conducted. Nonprobability convenience sampling technique was applied to select a sample of 30 patients staying at the otolaryngology ward of the Medical Sciences Hospital School at the National Autonomous University of Honduras from January 2017 to December 2019. These patients had been diagnosed with nose and paranasal sinus cancer.

Results:

The study included 30 patients, of whom 47% were aged over 50 years, 53% were female, 40% were housewives and 20% were farmers. The main signs and symptoms were nasal obstruction (50%), rhinorrhea (30%) and mass (20%), with most common location in the nasal cavity (67%). The most important radiological characteristics were their vascularity (43%) and one-sidedness (33%), with lymphoma as the prevailing histological type (30%).

Conclusions:

Nasal tumors prevailed in the female sex, with nasal obstruction, rhinorrhea and mass as their main signs and symptoms. Increase in vascularity in computed tomography images leads to suspecting malignancy. Evidence was found that the economic factor and poor knowledge about the disease delayed patient attendance to a hospital institution.

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