We have read with great interest the article by Dr Shawn et al entitled “Unilateral nasal polyposis: clinical presentation and pathology” in the American Journal of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Medicine and Surgery 29 (2008) 230-232. However, we are suspicious about the statistical data of the article.

The authors presented their findings of chronic rhinosinusitis incidence as 17 (39%) of 44 patients, allergic fungal sinusitis (AFS) incidence as 15 (34%) of 44 patients, and inverting papilloma incidence as 7 (16%) of 44 patients in the “Results” section. However, we have seen that these findings did not correlate with the findings of disease incidences in the “Discussions” section, such as the incidence of inverting papilloma was presented as 7 (39%) of 44 that was different from the results section that we had written above. On the other hand authors declared that chronic rhinosinusitis and AFS accounted for 34 (77%) of 44 patients in the discussions section. However, also these findings did not correlate with the presenting findings of “Results” section, either.

As we can see above, there are simple statistical mistakes in this article. We think that this important and original study in the literature has been cited many times and sure will continue to be cited in the future. In our opinion, this article is among few articles that enlightens us about unilateral nasal polyposis; therefore, it is worth revising the findings and statistical mistakes.