Palatine tonsil schwannoma: correlation between clinicopathology and computed tomography features

We describe the case of a 37-year old male who presented with a schwannoma in his right palatine tonsil. The tumour and tonsil were surgically removed transorally. Tonsillar schwannomas are slow growing, and the main symptoms were a foreign body feeling in the throat, dysphagia and snoring. The presence of a round, well-defined mass lesion with heterogeneous density on computed tomography (CT) may aid in differentiation from other tonsillar tumours. The CT findings in the reported case were different to those of schwannomas in other locations; the particular CT manifestations of tonsillar schwannomas seem to relate to the various pathological changes seen within the tumour.