Clinical and pathological features of primary parapharyngeal space tumors / 中国耳鼻咽喉头颈外科

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVE To describe the clinical features of the parapharyngeal space tumors and assess the postoperative complications and outcomes in our hospital.METHODS The clinical data of 135 cases with parapharyngeal space tumor treated from Jan.1995 to Dec.2005 in our hospital were retrospectively studied.RESULTS It included 24 heterogeneous histologies in this group.Neurogenic tumors(72.6 %) were the most common tumors,next were salivary gland tumors(15.6 %),and others 11.8 % tumors were miscellaneous tumors.There were 121(89.6 %) patients with benign lesions and 14(10.4 %) with malignant tumors.Transcervical approach was the most commonly applied route.Only 4 cases recurred in 113 operated benign patients.At end of the follow-up,of 14 patients with malignant tumors,4(28.6 %) were alive with no evidence of disease,5(35.7 %) were alive with disease,5(35.7 %) died of the diseases.CONCLUSION Primary parapharyngeal space neoplasms are rare and the majority of these tumors are benign.Surgery is the mainstay of treatment for parapharyngeal space tumors.Most benign cases with a low rate of complication and recurrence after operation,but malignant neoplasms have a poor prognosis.