English

Abstract

Parapharyngeal space tumours account for some 0.5% of tumours of the head and neck. Most of them are benign. The importance of these tumours lies mainly in two aspects: on one hand, the difficulty of early diagnosis, due to the lack of symptoms in the initial stages and, on the other, the extreme complications of performing surgery in the parapharyngeal region. Tumors originating in the parapharyngeal space are rare and are fascinating to the surgeon in view of the anatomical complexity of the area, varied histological types and the impressive size which some of these tumors attain before becoming clinically evident. We report a rare case of schwannoma arising from the lingual nerve & presenting as a mass in the parapharyngeal space.