Abstract

The Silent Sinus Syndrome (SSS) is a quite rare idiopathic clinical condition characterized by atelectasis/hypoplasia of the maxillary sinus which outlines a subclinical chronic maxillary sinusitis. This framework therefore causes some ipsilateral eyepieces alterations, such as silent and progressive enophtalmos and hypoglobus that may be associated with visual changes; in all cases the medical history is negative for previous facial trauma and sinonasal or maxillofacial surgery. Montgomery (1964), Wilkins and Kulwin (1981) described some cases of spontaneous and monolateral enophtalmos and hypoglobus with diplopia and ptosis caused by pauci or asymptomatic maxillary sinus disease. The term Silent Sinus Syndrome was used for the first time 30 years later by Soparkar and co. in the ophthalmic literature. Rose and co. use instead the term “imploding antrum syndrome” to emphasize the concept that a chronic sinus condition may lead in a relatively brief period to ocular signs. This study refers the case of an 11-year old boy affected by SSS.

Keywords: Silent sinus syndrome, Pedriatic maxillary sinusitis, Atelectasis/hypoplasia of maxillary sinus, Ennophtalmos