Rhabdomyoma in the base of the tongue : A case report

Abstract

Introduction: Rhabdomyomas are benign and rare mesenchymal tumors. They are classified into cardiac and extracardiac. However, the majority of adult subtype, which are extracardiac, tend to occur in the head and neck region.

Present of case: A 57-year-old man with dysphagia, dysphonia and stertor one year ago. Head and neck endoscopy was the first step to detect a smooth mass at the base of the tongue, after that CT-scan showed great lobuled mass measured 7 × 5 × 6 cm. However, complete surgical excision was done and the histopathological examination play a central role to reveal an adult-type rhabdomyoma.

Discussion: the tongue base is absolutely one of the rarest sites of oral adult-type rhabdomyoma (ARM), because since 1948 to 2021 there were only four English-language articles which described ARM in the base of the tongue, anyway this type mimics malignant tumors on CT-scan because of its unclear borders and The golden diagnosis depends on histopathological examination and immunohistochemistry staining when the desmin markers are positive after that the tumor was completely excisioned as the best treatment.

Conclusion: Base of the tongue is a very rare location for adult-rhabdomyoma which must be considered in the differential diagnosis of head and neck lesions.

Keywords: Adult type; Base of tongue; Benign tumor; Muscular tumor; Rahbdomyoma.

Fig. 1

Computed tomograghy (CT) of the neck showing a large mass at the anterior part of the oral pharynx and deeply located in the base of tongue.

Fig. 2

The operation of excision the tumor by external approach in the neck, and the huge size of ARM after excision.

Fig. 3

Rhabdomyoma with abundant eosinophilic cytoplasm and submucosal skeletal muscle tissue with Hematoxylin and eosin staining (H&E). Immunohistochemically, desmin markers showed 100% positive staining for the tumor cells.