Nursing Diagnoses for Mucocele

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I am working on my clinical write up for a patient with Mucocele. He has no co-morbidities and had a craniotomy a few days ago to correct the mucocele cysts. I am having a hard time finding a nursing diagnosis to go with such. Mucocele is not listed in my Nursing Diagnosis Handbook (Ackley) and I am not for sure what other route to go down seeing as to how he does not have any co-morbidities to concentrate on. PLEASE HELP!!!

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Specializes in Emergency; med-surg; mat-child.

Wouldn't a craniotomy put him at high risk for infection? Acute pain? Will there be any visible scarring? That could be a risk dx for self image (I think there's one for that).

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I agree with the self image and pain. I can not use a "risk for" diagnosis, my instructors do not like those. This is not his first craniotomy, he had one about 10 years ago after the initial pedestrian vs car accident. I believe his pain is under control because they have taken him off of morphine and he is only getting PO tylenol now. I will see what I can find about the self image and I am sure he has to still be in pain so that one should be able to fit in as well! Thanks for your help!

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Specializes in Utilization Management.

This may be a stupid question but...where were the mucoceles located?

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It is an obstruction of the frontal sinuses. it causes bones to remodel and become enlarged which causes the blockage, as far as I understand it. This is the first time I have heard of it when my instructor assigned this to me.

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Specializes in Utilization Management.

Yeah, the mucoceles I'm familiar with occur mainly in the mouth, so I was wondering why the patient needed a craniotomy, but now it makes sense, thanks :lol2:

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Typically, these are small painless lumps inside your lip and most of the time, it's fine to leave them untreated. Sometimes they can rub up against your teeth and get inflamed and inflict some level of discomfort. In your pt's case, you indicated they've been removed to alleviate the sinus blockage . I would think that could be enough to use a 'risk for infection' dx.

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You can focus on the surgery aspect...Nausea r/t post-anesthesia, Impaired Tissue Integrity r/t surgical incision, Imbalanced Nutrition: less than body requirements r/t nausea (post-anesthesia, if this applies), Activity Intolerance r/t surgical procedure.

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