Objective: To learn the anatomical structure of the parapharyngeal space and to analyze the pathological type, preoperative evaluation and choice of surgical approach of parapharyngeal space tumors.
Method: To conduct a retrospective analysis of the clinical data of 43 patients who receive surgery in our department from March 2002 to January 2011. All patients undergo enhanced CT and MRI before surgery and enhanced CT reconstruction was also adopted in the cases after the year 2009. All 43 cases of surgeries were performed under general anesthesia. Of all the cases, the lateral neck path were chosen for 38 cases, lateral neck parotid path for 3 and lateral neck path combined with mandibular split operation for 2, 1 of which tracheotomy was conducted. Suction drainage was placed in the surgical cavity of all cases. And patients without contraindications were treated with glucocorticoids.
Result: In 42 of all 43 cases, the tumor was removed completely during the first operation while tumor reoccurred after 3 years and was cured by reoperation in the other one case.
Conclusion: Parapharyngeal space is deep and the anatomy structure is complicated. Cancer incidence rate is low and mostly benign in this regional. Surgical resection is the preferred treatment and lateral neck approach is most commonly used. CT and MRI is an effective preoperative examination and enhanced CT reconstruction can provide a more intuitive spatial conformation.