Acute dyspnea caused by a giant spindle cell lipoma of the larynx

BACKGROUND: The spindle cell lipoma (SCL) is a special type of lipoma and this is very rare in the head and neck regions. There are only five reported cases exist, which describes the occurrence of a SCL in the hypopharynx.

METHODS: Our case report presents a case of a very large SCL in the larynx. We want to describe that how we treated the patients and compared the situation with other reported cases.

RESULTS: Intraoperatively, we found a tumor mass of 7 × 5 cm. It was successfully removed with the carbon dioxide laser. No postoperative complications occurred.

CONCLUSIONS: Although SCL is a very rare diagnosis in the larynx/hypopharynx, it should be included in the differential diagnosis of larynx/hypopharynx tumors. Our case is the first report of such a large SCL in the larynx. The clinical symptoms occurred relatively late and ended up in an acute situation of stridor and dyspnea.