Lisan Q, Leclerc N, Kania R, Guichard J-P, Herman P, Verillaud B
Head and Neck Department, European Hospital Georges-Pompidou, University Paris Descartes, 20, rue Leblanc, 75015 Paris, France.
Head and Neck Department, Lariboisière Hospital, University Paris 7, 2, rue Amboise-Paré, 75010 Paris, France.
Eur Ann Otorhinolaryngol Head Neck Dis. 2018 Oct;135(5):311-314. doi: 10.1016/j.anorl.2018.06.005. Epub 2018 Jul 10.
Infratemporal fossa (ITF) tumors are rare and little is known about their general epidemiology, making it sometimes difficult for clinicians, who seldom encounter them, to distinguish between benign and malignant forms on the basis of the initial clinical and radiological work-up alone. The objectives of this retrospective study were: (i) to determine the respective prevalences of the various histologic types of ITF tumor, and (ii) to assess associations between certain clinical and radiological features and malignancy.
A single-center observational study in a university hospital included all new consecutive cases of ITF tumor treated from January 2000 to December 2016. Histologic type, demographics, clinical presentation and imaging findings were analyzed.
In total, 62 patients were included. 74% of tumors were benign (n=46) and 26% malignant. Juvenile nasopharyngeal angiofibroma, adenoid cystic carcinoma and schwannoma were the most frequent histologic types, accounting for 47%, 16% and 10% of cases, respectively. The only clinical or imaging signs significantly associated with malignancy were trismus, facial pain, facial hypoesthesia and neural invasion on magnetic resonance imaging (all P-values<0.05).
This study provides general epidemiological data on ITF tumors, and identified several clinical and radiologic signs to help clinicians suspect malignancy.