Clinical and histopathological correlation of nasal polyps: are there any surprises?

Nasal polypectomy is a common operation. There is debate about whether all nasal polyps removed at operation should be sent for histopathological. exa mination. To investigate this, a prospective study was performed to check t he correlation of clinical and histopathological examination. Three hundred and forty-four nasal polypectomy specimens during the period from Septembe r 1997 to September 1999 were sent for histopathological diagnosis, with th e clinical diagnosis documented on the pathology form. The clinical diagnos is was then correlated with the histological diagnosis. Three hundred and t wenty-eight specimens were diagnosed as inflammatory polyps and 16 as tumou rs, of which seven were malignant. There was a good correlation between the clinical and histological findings in 340 cases. There was disagreement be tween the forms and reports in four cases. When the notes were consulted, t hree cases had forms that were incorrectly filled in. There was only one un suspected case of inverted papilloma in a polyp specimen, which looked like a benign inflammatory polyp. This study indicates there is a 99.7% correla tion between clinical and histopathological diagnosis.