Necrotizing sialometaplasia involving the mucous glands of the nasal cavity

Necrotizing sialometaplasia was found in maxillary sinus mucous glands of an 83 year old woman who had undergone a radical maxillectomy for basal cell carcinoma 10 days earlier. Previously recognized as an ulcerating lesion involving salivary glands in the oral cavity, this benign reactive process may also occur in the mucous glands of the nasal cavity and sinuses and can simulate squamous cell or mucoepidermoid carcinoma. Ischemia appears to be pathogenetic.