Cervical Aggressive Fibromatosis Causing Airway Obstruction

Abstract

Fibromatosis or desmoid tumors are rare benign fibroblastic lesions that are rarely present in the head and neck regions. When they do occur in these regions, however, they tend to be aggressive toward the surrounding tissue and be associated with heavy morbidity and mortality. We report the case of a 26-year-old Tunisian female who presented with acute obstructive dyspnea and a 3-week history of cervical swelling. The swelling was initially only located in the left submandibular area, it then gradually extended to all the anterior cervical supra- and infrahyoid regions causing a clinical presentation resembling that of obstructive dyspnea, the patient was admitted, and an emergency tracheotomy was performed. Tissue samples were taken, pathological analysis revealed an aggressive case of fibromatosis. The patient was treated with corticosteroids and antihormonal therapy, the fibrous mass shrunk considerably allowing the removal of the tracheotomy cannula, no tumor recurrence was noted during the observation period. Due to the rarity of this disease, especially in the cervical region, there are no therapeutic guidelines available.