Metastatic hypopharyngeal carcinoma to the temporal bone.

Two cases of temporal bone metastasis by hypopharyngeal carcinomas are reported. One patient was a 43-year-old Japanese male who developed palsy of left oculomotor, trochlear, trigeminal, abducens and facial nerves. Carcinoma infiltrated the petrous portion of the left temporal bone. Tumor had destroyed a part of the facial canal and invading tumor cells were in contact with the perineurium. The other patient was a 59-year-old male who had no obvious facial nerve or otologic symptoms during the clinical course of his disease. Postmortem findings showed that carcinoma had invaded the right temporal bone and had produced extensive destruction of the facial canal. Degenerative findings were evident in the nerve. In the cases presented here, tumor resulted either from metastatic lymph nodes or had invaded through the suture of the temporal and sphenoid bones around the foramen lacerum to the middle cranial fossa and then infiltrated the temporal bone.