Background: The proximity of the eye to the nose, paranasal sinuses and skull base makes it vulnerable to be involved in the diseases of this area.
Objective: To document the presenting diagnosis and ophthalmologic complications of nasal, paranasal sinus diseases and head/neck and skull base tumours.
Design: A prospective descriptive study.
Setting: Ophthalmology and otolaryngology units at Lagos University Teaching Hospital, Nigeria.
Subjects: Two hundred and twenty nine patients were reviewed between July 2003 and July 2005.
Results: Out of a total study population of two hundred and twenty nine patients, 88.2% patients presented primarily in the Otolaryngology unit. Otolaryngological diagnosis were as follows, sinusitis 170 (74.2%), nasal polyposis 27 (11.8%), nasopharyngeal carcinoma 23 (10%) and others were maxillary carcinoma six (2.3%), nasoethmoidal carcinoma two (0.9%) and frontoethmoidal mucocoele 0.4%. Ear, Nose and Throat (E.N.T) related ophthalmological complications was seen in 18 (7.9%) which included proptosis, proptosis /restrictive myopathy, visual loss, and enophthalmos while 39.3% had non ear, nose and throat related ophthalmological diseases.
Conclusion: Ophthalmological complications of paranasal sinus diseases and head/neck tumours is still a significant health problem. Sinusitis though increasing in prevalence has resulted in less ophthalmological complications partly due to predominant allergic type with less complications and also to the availability and access to antibiotics and anti allergic drugs.