We report a 51-year-old male patient with papillary cystadenocarcinoma in the parotid gland who presented a slowly progressive tumor in the left infraauricular region. The findings of several examinations including a fine needle as piration biopsy (FNA) suggested a malignant tumor of the parotid gland origin. The histopahtological diagnosis of the tumor via an open biopsy performed under local anesthesia was low grade carcinoma, such as acinic cell carcinoma, and low-grade adenocarcinoma. A superficial lobectomy of the parotid gland was performed 7 days later to preserve the facial nerve because the tumor was at least 10mm from the nearest nerve brunch. The final histopathological diagnosis was a subtype of adenocarcinoma; papillary cystadenocarcinoma.
It is often difficult to diagnose the histopathological type of the tumor since there are many different types of parotid carcinoma. Moreover, since the prognosis of parotid carcinoma also varies according to its histopathological type, accurate preoperative diagnosisis necessary to select the appropriate operation. An open biopsy should be performed to accurately diagnose patients with parotid carcinomas and to improve their prognosis when histopathological diagnosis by other examinations is difficult.
