Introduction
Nasal rhinosporidiosis is a chronic granulomatous disease of the nose caused by Rhinosporidium seeberi.1-5 The disease predominantly affects the mucous membrane of the nose, nasopharynx and conjunctiva. Rhinosporidiosis tend to occur in human beings and in animals and is more common in hot tropical climates though highly endemic in India and Sri Lanka.6-9 Sporadic pattern for the disease has been reported in other parts of the world such as Argentina, Brazil and Africa.9
In terms of sex predilection, there is no racial predominance and males are ore affected than females especially those aged 15-40 years with male to female ratio being 4:1.2,10,11Rhinosporidiosis may be transmitted by direct contact with spores through dust, infected clothing and swimming in stagnant water.7,8,12,13 Though the disease remains to be very rare in our country yet there are some countries that have reported several cases including Nigeria.8 The diagnosis of nasal rhinosporidiosis is established by observing the characteristics of the causative organisms in nasal tissue biopsies like sporangia that may be at variable stages of maturation. Since it presents like a polypoidal mass in the nasal cavity, it mimicks other diseases presenting with nasal masses 5,14-17 thus a high index of suspicion by clinicians is of importance in management of patients with nasal masses in the era of this emerging disease entity. The main stay of treatment is surgical excision of the nasal mass though a high recurrence rate has been reported.4,5,15,17 It may lead to death immunocompromised patients.18 To the best of our knowledge, this is the first reported case of nasal rhinosporidiosis in Central Tanzania and the 16th case countrywide
We are therefore reporting a case of nasal rhinosporidiosis that was managed by endoscopic surgical excision of the nasal mass and kept on oral dapsone for 6 months postoperatively.