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CASE REPORT article

Front. Pediatr.
Sec. Pediatric Otolaryngology
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fped.2025.1451316

Unveiling the Unexpected: A Rare Case of Adult-Type Rhabdomyoma in a 9-Year-Old Boy

Provisionally accepted
Li Wang Li Wang 1Shan Li Shan Li 2*Lingling Sun Lingling Sun 3*
  • 1 School of Medicine, Liaocheng University, Liaocheng, Shandong Province, China
  • 2 The Fifth People's Hospital of Jinan City, Jinan, Shandong Province, China
  • 3 Department of otolaryngology, Liaocheng People's Hospital, Liaocheng, Shandong Province, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Rhabdomyoma is an exceedingly rare benign soft tissue tumor of skeletal muscle origin, classified into cardiac and extracardiac types based on location. Extracardiac rhabdomyoma further includes adult, genital, and fetal types depending on the degree of differentiation. Most patients are between 40 and 70 years old, with a mean age of 60 years and a male predominance. This case report presents a 9-year-old boy diagnosed with an oropharyngeal tumor, initially presenting with a 6-month history of a foreign body sensation in the throat, presenting as nighttime snoring. Postoperative histological examination revealed adult rhabdomyoma, characterized by specific immunohistochemical and histologic traits including cytoplasmic positivity for muscle-specific Actin (MSA), Desmin, Myogenin, and MYOD1, large polygonal skeletal muscle cells and frequent extensive vacuolization. This report highlights the unusual age of presentation for this variant and underscores the need for heightened clinical awareness to ensure accurate diagnosis and effective management of such rare occurrences.

    Keywords: Adult-type rhabdomyoma, Extracardiac rhabdomyomas, Pharyngeal, Child, case report

    Received: 19 Jun 2024; Accepted: 15 Jan 2025.

    Copyright: © 2025 Wang, Li and Sun. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence:
    Shan Li, The Fifth People's Hospital of Jinan City, Jinan, Shandong Province, China
    Lingling Sun, Department of otolaryngology, Liaocheng People's Hospital, Liaocheng, 252000, Shandong Province, China

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