Spontaneous infarction of a pleomorphic adenoma in parotid gland: diagnostic problems and review

Although infarction of parotid gland pleomorphic adenoma (PA) following fine-needle aspiration (FNA) has been well-documented, spontaneous infarction of PA has remained as an uncommon entity in the literature. To our knowledge, we report the second case of spontaneous infarction occurring in a parotid gland PA. A 44-yr-old man presented with a 2-yr history of slowly enlarging right parotid mass, which had become painful 1 mo before performing FNA biopsy. Smears revealed abundant necrotic debris, atypical squamous cells, and small cells with dark nuclei suggestive of a carcinoma. Histologic examination of the tissue fragments demonstrated degenerated clusters of cells and chondromyxoid matrix. The parotidectomy specimen had features consistent with those of an infarcted PA. Although appears to be rare, spontaneous infarction of PA should be considered in the differential diagnosis, since necrosis may mimic carcinoma and cause misinterpretation of necrosis as an indication of malignancy, in an otherwise benign salivary gland neoplasm.