Nasopharyngeal thyroid-like low-grade papillary adenocarcinoma.

OBJECTIVE

Epistaxis is extremely common in children. Although rare, the presence of an intranasal mass as a cause of bleeding should be ruled out in patients with recurrent or massive epistaxis. We present a patient whose recurrent nose-bleeding had been due to a nasopharyngeal mass.

METHODS

Case report with relevant literature review.

RESULTS

A 15-year-old girl with a history of sudden posterior nasal bleeding was diagnosed with thyroid-like low-grade nasopharyngeal papillary adenocarcinoma of the nasopharynx. A type II nasopharyngeal endoscopic resection was performed with an excellent outcome at 30-months follow-up. The literature review on the topic disclosed only five other paediatric cases, none of which presented with epistaxis.

CONCLUSIONS

Recurrent epistaxis may infer the presence of nasopharyngeal malignant neoplasms, even in children. To our knowledge, this represents the sixth case in the literature of a paediatric low-grade nasopharyngeal adenocarcinoma and the first presenting with massive epistaxis. The possibility of such a finding should be kept in mind when evaluating children with massive epistaxis.