Rhinogenic headache ¿myth or reality?: Middle turbinate fibrous displasia, as a cause of facial pain

Abstract

Headache is one of the most frequent symptoms in medicine that can be classified as primary, like tensional headache and migraine or secondary as in tumors, infections, or other causes. Rhinogenic headache is proposed as a clinical entity secondary to mucosal contact points within the nasal cavity. In this article we present a case of a patient that after a pharmacological treatment failure for migraine, consulted for sustained facial pain. After clinical examination and a paranasal sinus computed tomography, a rhinogenic headache secondary to middle turbinate fibrous dysplasia was diagnosed. Endoscopic surgical extirpation of contact mucosal points by a medial turbinectomy produced com­plete abolition of facial pain. This case illustrates the need and utility of studying paranasal sinus in those patients with headache or facial pain.