Clinical presentation of hypopharyngeal tumors in sudanese patients

Abstract AR

Objective : To study the clinical aspects of hypopharyngeal tumors in Sudanese patients in comparison to similar international series.

Methods: This a retrospective study which was conducted in the ENT Department of Wad Medani Teaching Hospital, Wad Medani (Central Sudan), covering a period of five years (1999-2004).

Resulls: The case notes of 46 patients were reviewed.

The male to female ratio was 1:1.

There were two peaks for maximum incidence at 20-30 years and 41-50 years of age.

The most common presenting symptoms were dysphagia (93.5%), sore throat (32.6%), weight loss (28.3%), hoarseness (26.1%), otalgia (17.4%), stridor (17.4%), odynophagia (15.2%), and foreign body sensation in the throat (6.5%).

The most common clinical signs were: cervical lymph node metastasis (43.5%), absence of laryngeal crepitus (28.3%), pooling of saliva in the hypopharynx (23.9%) and vocal cord paralysis (8.7%).

The tumor sites in the hypopharynx subdivisions were as follows: postcricoid area (50%), piriform fossa (30.4%) and posterior pharyngeal wall (2.2%).

The tumor site in the remaining (17.4%) was not clearly stated in the records.

The histopathological studies revealed that 45 cases (97.8%) were reported as squamous cell carcinoma (SCC).

There was a single case (2.2%) of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.

Conclusion: Hypopharyngeal tumors in Sudanese patients affect both sexes equally.

These tumor affect younger age groups.

Postcricoid tumors are the most common and they are usually well-differentiated, non-keratinized squamous cell carcinoma.

Clinical manifestations of these tumors, especially in young patients, should alert the clinician to this serious disease before its extension.