Presentation of choanal atresia in Saudi children.

OBJECTIVE To present data of cases with choanal atresia (CA) from Saudi patients, and to compare them to the data from the international literature. METHODS A retrospective analysis of the data available from the files of 37 consecutive patients with the diagnosis of CA at King Abdul-Aziz University Hospital, Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia between January 1999 and December 2005. This involved reviewing the age, gender, presenting symptoms, associated anomalies, surgical intervention, and outcomes. RESULTS Twenty-three of our cases had unilateral and 14 had bilateral CA. Strikingly, 83% of unilateral CA involved the right side. In our study, we found the female to male ratio to be 2:1. Approximately, 95% of the cases had mixed bony and membranous CA. Thirty-two percent of the cases had other associated congenital anomalies. Most of our cases had their surgical intervention by endoscopic technique. CONCLUSION Choanal atresia is a rare anomaly. In Saudi children, female is more commonly affected than male. There is a striking rate of involvement of the right side in the cases of unilateral CA.