Razi Journal of Medical Sciences

    Background & Objective: Parapharyngeal and infratemporal masses are rare head and neck tumors that constitute about 0.5% of all of them. To assess the distribution of infratemporal and parapharyngeal masses, this study was carried out in ENT department of Hazrat Rasoul Hospital as a sample of Iranian population.

Method: In this retrospective study, we evaluated parapharyngeal and infratemporal tumors in Hazrat Rasoul-e-Akram Hospital in Tehran, from Jan. 1991 until Jan. 2001.

Results: The sampled population was 39 patients suffering from these masses. The mean age of the patients was 44.9 years. The most frequent complaint was asymptomatic neck mass(69.2%).

Conclusion: The findings reported masses of these areas in descending order of frequency: salivary gland tumors(51.2%-esp. PMA: Pleomorphic Adenoma), paraganglioma (15.3%), schwanoma (7.7%), angiofobroma and lymphoma. All patients had been evaluated by imaging techniques, the most common of which was contrast-enhanced CT-scan. All patients except one case of NHL(Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma) were candidates to be operated on and with the exception of 4 cases, surgery via transcervical approach(with or without a combined approach) was done on them.