[Clinical analysis of Langerhans cell histiocytosis of head and face].
OBJECTIVE
To study the diagnosis and treatment for Langerhans cell histiocytosis (LCH) of head and face.


METHODS
Clinical data of 19 cases suffering from LCH of head and face verified by pathology was retrospectively analyzed. The clinical presentation, diagnosis and treatment were discussed.


RESULTS
Of all the 19 cases, 5 patients had an involvement of the scalp or skull, 5 had the maxilla involvement and 9 temporal bone. Among the 19 patients, type I stage I was 8 cases(all adults), type II stage I 7 cases (all children), type ILL stage II 2 (1 adult, 1 child), stage III 1 and stage IV 1 (both child). Their main clinical manifestations included scalp mass, defect of skull, swelling or mass of facial maxilla and of ear or temporal bone, otorrhea, granuloma of auricular canal, and so on. Fifteen cases were cured by surgical curettage combined with radiotherapy and 4 by surgical curettage combined with chemotherapy. One patient had the sequelae of diabetes insipidus.


CONCLUSIONS
Diagnosis of LCH should be based on synthetical analyses of clinical manifestations, features of imaging and histopathology. Surgical curettage, radiotherapy and chemotherapy are effective treatment regimens. The prognosis is generally good if the patient gets correct diagnosis and timely rational treatment.
Department of Otolaryngology, Sichuan Academy of Medical Sciences, Sichuan Provincial People's Hospital, Chengdu 610072, China. xugoto@yahoo.com.cn
Gang
G
Xu
Bin
B
Liu
Gang
G
He
Wei
W
Fei
Ke
K
Xie
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005145:Face / Q000473:pathology*; D005260:Female; D006257:Head / Q000473:pathology*; D006646:Histiocytosis, Langerhans-Cell / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000473:pathology / Q000628:therapy; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D055815:Young Adult