An extralaryngeal, extraesophageal surgical approach to a low-grade posterior cricoid chondrosarcoma

Abstract

A chondrosarcoma is a malignant tumor originating from cartilage and may occur in any part of the body. It occurs most commonly in the posterior lamina of the cricoid cartilage, followed by the thyroid cartilage, arytenoid cartilage, vocal cords, and epiglottis. In the literature, 25 cases of tracheal chondrosarcoma were reported between 1964 and 2017, but only two cases of cricoid cartilage chondrosarcoma. Currently, no consensus on chondrosarcoma treatment has been established yet, due to the rarity of the condition, and no therapeutic protocol has been shown to be clearly superior to others. Herein, we present the third case of a cricoid chondrosarcoma in the literature. We used a surgical procedure different from those employed earlier; we employed an extralaryngeal, extraesophageal approach. We describe the diagnosis, treatment, and follow-up results in the light of current literature.