MALIGNANT SCHWANNOMA OF THE PARAPHARYNGEAL SPACE IN VONRECKLINGHAUSENS DISEASE - A CASE-REPORT AND REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE

Neurofibromatosis (NF) or von Recklinghausen's disease is frequently a ccompanied by malignant tumours, which can occur at any site in the bo dy. These malignancies are mainly of soft tissue origin. Of all head a nd neck malignancies, the number of soft tissue sarcomas is limited an d in combination with NF this type of tumour is a rare event. In this report we describe the clinical course of a young female patient with NF, who presented with a massive malignant schwannoma in the paraphary ngeal space, and review the pertinent literature.