Extranasopharyngeal angiofibroma in children: A case report

BACKGROUND: Sporadic cases of extranasopharyngeal angiofibroma in children, especially preschool children, have been reported in the literature. CASE SUMMARY: We present a case of extranasopharyngeal angiofibroma in a 4-year-old boy. The presenting symptoms, imaging findings, treatment, histological appearance, and follow-up data are described in detail. For this patient, we performed embolization on two occasions, and then, resected the tumor completely. During the treatment, the patient developed a soft-palate perforation due to aseptic necrosis. However, the healing ability was good, and the perforation healed spontaneously. We additionally reviewed all pediatric cases of extranasopharyngeal angiofibroma published up to 30 June 2020 in the PubMed, Baidu Scholar, Scopus, and Web of Science databases. We identified 45 pediatric patients [average (10.98 ± 4.86), boys 39 (86.7%)]. The highest proportion of cases occurred in adolescence [22 (48.9%)]. The top three sites of occurrence of extranasopharyngeal angiofibroma in children were the maxillary sinus, nasal septum, and inferior turbinate. CONCLUSION: Extranasopharyngeal angiofibromas can occur throughout childhood, and predominantly present with nasal obstruction and spontaneous rhinorrhagia.