Neural tumours of the head and neck.

OBJECTIVE To document the pattern of occurrence of all primary neural tumours arising in the neck and craniofacial region over the period 1982 to 1991. DESIGN A retrospective study. SETTING Cancer Registry, Nairobi, Kenya. RESULTS Out of the 289 cases who were identified to have had whole body neural tumours, 225 (77.8%) had the lesions distributed in the neck and craniofacial area. While 80% of the neoplasms located in this region were retinoblastomas (mainly occurring in the age group 0 to 4 years), other lesion types occurred in small numbers thus: neurofibromas comprised 12.4%, Schwannomas four per cent, neuroblastomas and neuromas each 0.4%; and extracranial gliomas 2.7%. Overall, the male to female ratio was 1:1 and the site distribution revealed that over 90% of the lesions afflicted the upper face. CONCLUSION Neural tumours of the neck and craniofacial region appear generally rare in this population as has been shown elsewhere.