Vol.95 No.4 contentsPRACTICA OTO-RHINO-LARYNGOLOGICA
Vol. 95 No. 4 April 2002
Three Cases of Olfactory Neuroblastoma
Shigeki Mochigi, Tetsuya Murakawa, Manabu Nakanoboh,
Taichi Furukawa, Naoyuki Kohno and Satoshi Kitahara
(National Defense Medical College)
Olfactory neuroblastoma (esthesioneuroblastoma) is a rare carcinoma arising from the epithelium.
To date eighty cases have been reported in the Japanese literature, and we report here three cases of olfactory neuroblastoma.
Case 1, a 67-year-old male presented with a nosebleed and magnetic resonance imaging revealed a mass in the nasal cavity that infiltrated intracranially. Skull base surgery and craniofacial resection were performed, but the patient died of brain metastasis two and a half years later.
Case 2, a 45-year-old male presented with epistaxis and computed tomography revealed tumor invading the anterior cranialfossa. En bloc resection of the skull base was performed with subsequent radiotherapy chemotherapy (carboplatin). Neck dissection was required later for cervical metastasis but the patient is still alive six years after neck dissection.
Case 3, a 69-year-old female presented with nasal obstruction. The tumor was limited to the nasal cavity and surgical extirpation by lateral rhinotomy was performed. The patient is still alive two years postoperatively with no evidence of local recurrence or metastasis.
Key words : olfactory neuroblastoma, esthesioneuroblastoma, skull base surgery, lateral rhinotomy