gms | German Medical Science

Background: Among the rare malignant tumors of the paranasal sinuses and the middle ear the hemangiopericytoma represents a very scarce tumor entity. Reviewing four cases treated in our ENT-department we want to present our experiences with this tumor.

Material and method: Inpatient and outpatient medical records from 1976 to 2001 were evaluated retrospectively.

Results: For the whole period we found four patients who were treated with the diagnosis hemangiopericytoma, comprising three women and one man. Three tumors were localized in the paranasal sinuses (two in maxillary sinus, one in frontal sinus) and one in the middle ear. While the two tumors of the maxillary sinus and the tumor of the middle ear were treated only by a surgery, the patient with the tumor of the frontal sinus received also a postoperative irradiation because of an endocranial infiltration. This patient was the only one, who developed an endocranial recurrence 14 years later on the opposite site, which again was treated in combination of surgery and radiotherapy.

Conclusions: The hemangiopericytoma as a very rare tumor in the paranasal sinuses and the middle ear should be treated with surgery. In our view an adjuvant radiotherapy is indicated only in selected individual cases.