Adult rhabdomyoma of soft palate

A case of adult rhabdomyoma of the soft palate in a 60-year-old man studied by methods including electron microscopy, is reported. The patient was free of recurrence 2 years later. The eleven previously documented cases of adult rhabdomyoma involving the oral cavity are reviewed. The concept that rhabdomyoma is a neoplasm rather than a hamartoma is favored. Adequate local excision appears to be curative. The differences between the cardiac and extracardiac forms of rhabdomyoma as well as between adult rhabdomyoma and especially granular-cell myoblastoma and fetal rhabdomyoma are presented.