Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2008 Feb;122(2):207-9.
doi: 10.1017/S0022215107007293. Epub 2007 Apr 10.

Nasopharyngeal carcinoma presenting as carotidynia in an 18-year-old patient

D Ellul  1 , J Cutajar, H Borg Xuereb, M Said
Affiliations
Review

Nasopharyngeal carcinoma presenting as carotidynia in an 18-year-old patient

D Ellul et al. J Laryngol Otol. 2008 Feb.

Abstract

Introduction: Nasopharyngeal carcinoma can present with a variety of symptoms the most common being painless cervical lymph node metastases, epistaxis and conductive hearing loss.

Case report: We report a case of an 18-year-old male patient presenting to the ENT department with left sided carotidynia - severe pain in the neck radiating up to his ear. He had a small, exquisitely tender lump just below the bifurcation of the left common carotid artery. After the appropriate investigations he was diagnosed with nasopharyngeal carcinoma.

Discussion: In a literature search on Medline and Pubmed we found no reported cases of nasopharyngeal carcinoma presenting with carotidynia, nor was carotidynia ever found to be associated with nasopharyngeal carcinoma.

Conclusion: We believe that this is the first reported case of such a presentation of nasopharyngeal carcinoma.

PubMed Disclaimer