A Case of Hypopharyngeal Hemangioma Exenterated by Lateral Pharyngotomy

Abstract

Hypopharyngeal benign tumors are an uncommon disease, and these tumors do not always have symptoms.
We report a 79-year-old female patient with a history of recurrent cough. She was diagnosed as having a hypopharyngeal hemangioma which covered the glottis. After performing a tracheotomy, we tried to exenterate the hemangioma through the mouth. However, as it was difficult to remove only the large tumor, alternatively we conducted a lateral pharyngotomy to exenterate it. The hemangioma was successfully excised with a small amount of bleeding.
A tracheotomy is necessary to improve surgical safety in cases of large hemangioma because the possibilities of bleeding from the hemangioma, technical difficulties of intubation, and laryngeal edema after operation are relatively high.
The through-the-mouth method affords only a limited field of operation. Therefore, to create a clear surgical field, we think lateral pharyngotomy is strongly recommended for removing a large hypopharyngeal hemangioma.