Congenital nasal pyriform aperture stenosis: a rare cause of neonatal nasal airway obstruction

Congenital nasal pyriform aperture stenosis (CNPAS) is a rare cause of nasal airway obstruction that clinically mimics choanal atresia in a neonate. The differentiation between the two is very important as the management of the two conditions is different. Timely recognition is important to prevent fatal outcome. CNPAS may present as an isolated condition or with associated craniofacial anomalies. Despite typical findings of CNPAS being present on cross-sectional imaging, this condition is commonly overlooked, probably because of a lack of familiarity with the normal morphological features of the nasal cavity in infants and also owing to a lack of awareness of this rare entity. Here we report a case of CNPAS with pre- and post-surgical CT images and the complication that occurred owing to nasal stenting.