A rare case of extracranial meningioma in parapharyngeal space presented as a neck mass

BACKGROUND: Meningiomas are the most common intracranial tumor, but rarely, they can develop extracranially, usually in the neck. There are very few cases of parapharyngeal meningioma reported in literature and little is known about their biological behavior and operative management. We present a patient with a primary parapharyngeal meningioma that presented as an anterior neck mass. CASE PRESENTATION: The patient is a 55-year-old female who presented with neck mass. A CT scan and MRI revealed a large, well defined, mildly enhancing soft tissue mass located in the right carotid sheath extended from the level of the thyroid gland into the skull base jugular foramen superiorly. Cervical exploration with partial excision of the mass was performed. Histological examination revealed meningiothelial cells with intranuclear inclusions, arranged in a syncytial pattern. Mutiple psamoma bodies these findings are consistent with the diagnosis of meningioma. CONCLUSION: Extracranial meningiomas are quite rare. The diagnosis of these types of tumors is challenging due to the non specific nature of the symptoms. The anatomic complexity of the region of parapharyngeal space also makes their detection difficult. Imaging modalities can aid in the diagnosis, but pathological examinations are essential in confirming a definite diagnosis. (C) 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. on behalf of Surgical Associates Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).