Bilateral recurrent adult rhabdomyomas of the pharyngeal wall

Abstract

Adult rhabdomyomas of the head and neck are uncommon benign skeletal muscle tumors. Only a few cases occurring in the pharyngeal wall have been described in the world literature. We present a case of recurrent bilateral rhabdomyomas in the pharynx and discuss the clinicopathological features of this lesion, comparing it to those of other neoplasms from which it must be differentiated. To our knowledge, bilaterality of this type of lesion has not been described previously. Although adult rhabdomyomas have a distinct histology, they often are mistaken for a variety of other lesions, particularly granular cell tumor.

Rhabdomyoma of the head and neck: morphology and differential diagnosis

“…AR grows most frequently as a solitary mass (about 70%), but may be multinodular with discrete nodules in the same area (about 25%) or, rarely, even multicentric (about 5%) [6,19]. Due to high local recurrence rate (up to 42%), complete excision is recommended [6,15,[18][19][20][21]. By contrast, malignant transformation has not been described.…”

Multiple Adult Rhabdomyomas of the Oropharynx, Base of the Tongue, and Floor of the Mouth

“…1 To our knowledge, there are only 2 prior reports of MR imaging of adult head and neck rhabdomyomas. 4,5 The tumors were described as having the same signal intensities as in our patient. 4 On imaging, minor salivary gland tumors and neurogenic tumors can have similar appearances.…”

The Monthly Interesting Case - Case No. 56

“…des Parapharyngealraumes [5 -7]. Differenzialdiagnostisch kann die histologische Differenzierung zwischen Paragangliom, Granularzelltumor, Onkozytom und Hibernom Schwierigkeiten bereiten [5,8,9]. als solider, homogener Tumor dar, der sich von benachbarten Strukturen gut abgrenzen lässt.…”

“…Da eine Feinnadelpunktion keine ausreichende Sensitivität und Spezifität besitzt [10 -12], ist die definitive Diagnose nur durch Biopsie zu stellen. Bei einem zu konservativen operativen Procedere können Rezidive auftreten [5,8,13], in seltenen Fällen tritt auch ein Zweittumor bzw. eine multilokuläre Erscheinungsform auf [3, 5, 8,10,14 -16], wobei jedoch eine Disposition hierfür in der Literatur nicht geklärt ist.…”