title: Malacoplakia of the vallecula masquerading as a malignancy.
abstract: Malacoplakia is an unusual chronic granulomatous inflammation that commonly occurs in the urinary tract. It is rarely encountered in the head and neck region, and only a handful of such cases have been described. We report a case of malacoplakia in a 50-year-old woman who presented with a mass in the vallecula that was clinically suspected of being malignant. This case illustrates the importance of recognizing this unusual benign lesion, which closely mimics a malignancy on clinical examination.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, Al-Jahra Hospital, PO Box 62276, Jahra, Kuwait 02153. mannanrifat@rediffmail.com
authors.forename: A A S
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: Mannan
authors.forename: Mehar Chand
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Sharma
authors.forename: Sudhir
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Bahadur
mesh_terms: D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008287:Malacoplakia / Q000150:complications / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000628:therapy*; D008875:Middle Aged; D009959:Oropharyngeal Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis*