Abstract
Hypopharyngeal schwannoma is a very rare disease. Here we report a hypopharyngeal tumor in a 43-year-old male. His chief complaint was hoarseness and he had a past history of testis carcinoma. CT scan taken during a follow-up of the testis carcinoma accidentally revealed a tumorous lesion in the right pyriform sinus. Otolaryngological examination at a hospital revealed a submucosal tumor in the hypopharynx, and the patient was referred to our university hospital for further examination. Fiberscopic examination revealed a whitish submucosal mass in the postcricoid area, posterior to the right arytenoid. His right vocal cord was fixed in the submedian position. By MRI, the mass showed low signal in T1 and high in T2 and it was enhanced by gadolinium. With a preoperative diagnosis of hypopharyngeal submucosal tumor, total extirpation of the tumor was performed under laryngomicrosurgery. A mucosal incision was made immediately above the tumor and the tumor was dissected. The size of the tumor was 15×10×5mm. The histopathological diagnosis was schwannoma. The postoperative course was good and the patient was discharged eight days after surgery. Until now, there have been no signs of recurrent tumor, but the fixed right vocal cord has remained unchanged. Peroral approach with laryngomicroscopy was used for the present case. The peroral approach is advantageous over open surgery in that the former is less invasive and patients can have meals immediately after the operation.
