Vol.95 No.11 contentsPRACTICA OTO-RHINO-LARYNGOLOGICA
Vol. 95 No. 11 November 2002
Squamous Cell Carcinoma of the Oropharynx
Presenting as an Oral Floor Abscess
Masako Nakai
(Hyogo Prefectural Amagasaki Hospital）
Kazuhiro Yamamoto
(Kyoto University Graduate School of Medicine）
Tomoko Kanda
(Kyoto Katsura Hospital)
Head and neck tumors presenting as an abscess are extremely rare. We report a case of oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma which presented as an abscess involving the oral floor and submandibular gland. We rapidly diagnosed the lesion by cytology of the pus.
We emphasize that the existence of malignancy must be suspected if the etiology is obscure and that pathological exploration of the abscess wall or pus at the time of drainage is effective.
Key words : head and neck, abscess, malignancy, pathological exploration