Non-epithelial lesions of the larynx: review of the 10-year experience in a tertiary Spanish hospital

Abstract

In this report we review the diagnosis, therapy, and outcome of laryngeal non-epithelial tumors and comment on the literature on these rare lesions. Non-epithelial tumors of the larynx are rather rare and most cases have been reported as isolated or short series of cases from different centers all over the world. The aim of the present study was to review the 10-year experience with non-epithelial lesions in a 400-bed tertiary hospital covering a population of almost 250 000 people in Madrid, Spain. We reviewed 2631 laryngeal samples corresponding to this time period. In all, 737 corresponded to carcinomas (726 squamous cell carcinomas). We had two cases of chondrosarcoma, one case of liposarcoma, one case of synovial sarcoma, and one neural benign tumor, suggestive of neurinoma. In this period we also had an inflammatory pseudotumor affecting the vocal cord, a case of primary laryngeal extramedullary plasmocytoma, and one case of high grade diffuse malignant lymphoma with exclusive involvement of the larynx. In our series most patients were women (five vs three patients) and ages ranged between 12 and 92 years.