JUVENILE LARYNGEAL PAPILLOMATOSIS IN A PEDIATRIC POPULATION - A CLINICOPATHOLOGICAL STUDY

A series of 22 children with juvenile laryngeal papillomatosis treated over a 31-year period is presented. The majority of patients were dia gnosed when less than 5 Tears of age. Two patients died from the disea se and four patients still had active disease at the completion of the study period. The duration of disease and number of recurrences were extremely variable. The number of recurrences was inversely related to the age of onset. The histologic findings were very similar in all pa tients, and no particular histologic feature had prognostic significan ce. In 20 patients, laryngeal biopsies were positive for human papillo mavirus (HPV) 6/11 by either in situ hybridization (17) or polymerase chain reaction (19) or both (16). The number of patients who were HPV negative was snail (two); interestingly, neither case had aggressive d isease. Our findings suggest that age of onset and HPV status mag be o f prognostic value in determining the clinical course of the disease.