title: Malignant mesenchymoma of the retropharyngeal space.
abstract: Malignant mesenchymoma is a very rare head and neck tumour. To date only 15 cases have been reported in world literature and all in children under 16 years of age. We present here a case of a 40-year-old man with malignant mesenchymoma of the retropharyngeal space. The clinical picture is that of progressive dysphagia, voice change, snoring and dyspnoea. CT scan showed a soft tissue space-occupying lesion of the retropharyngeal space which enhanced very well with intravenous contrast. The tumour was excised in toto and the patient given post-operative radiotherapy. Histopathology showed two unrelated differentiated tissue types (bone and fat) in addition to the fibrosarcomatous element thus satisfying Stout's criteria (Stout, 1948) for a diagnosis of malignant mesenchymoma.
authors.affiliation: Department of Otolaryngology, National University Hospital, Singapore.
authors.forename: H K
authors.initials: HK
authors.lastname: Leong
authors.forename: C Y
authors.initials: CY
authors.lastname: Kwan
authors.forename: R E
authors.initials: RE
authors.lastname: Stanley
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Tow
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008637:Mesenchymoma / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000473:pathology*; D010610:Pharyngeal Neoplasms / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000473:pathology*; D010614:Pharynx / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000473:pathology*; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed