Schwannomas no vestibulares de cabeza y cuello: Presentación de 6 casos clínicos

introduction: non vestibular head and neck schwannomas are benign tumors of low frequency that can produce great morbidity, depending on its location. objective: describe the experience of otolaryngology department from the clinical hospital of the university of chile in the management of non vestibular head and neck schwannomas. material and method: retrospective, descriptive study of the non vestibular schwannomas of head and neck diagnosed between the year 1998 and 2010. clinical history, study of images, operative protocols and clinical follow-up were analyzed. results: a total of 6 patients four male and two female, with a mean age of 36 years. the average time of evolution was 15.6 months with a range from 2 to 48 months. in all patients the tumor was excised completely. the diagnosis was confirmed by histology in all cases. conclusions: the non vestibular schwannomas of head and neck are slow- grow tumors with few symptoms. provided that the diagnosis of certainty is only realized by biopsy, it is necessary to have a high index of pre-operative suspicion.