Chondroid Syringoma of the Periauricular Area. A report of a Case and Review of the Literature

Chondroid syringoma (CS) or mixed tumor of the skin is a benign skin tumor, which belongs to appendageal, sweat gland tumors. This tumor is the counterpart of mixed tumor of the salivary gland because it consists of epithelial, myoepithelial and mesenchymal elements. It can be localized everywhere in the body but it has a predilection in the head and neck area.

We present a case of a CS in a young woman in the periauricular area and more specific behind ear lobe, in the retroauricular area. Interestingly, the lesion was just like a subdermal cyst and did not provoke any clinical suspicion. However, it was adequately excised, it was primarily sutured and the histopathology report was apocrine type of CS with clear margins.

We also reviewed the literature of the last 60 years emphasizing in CS in the Head and Neck Area and elaborated in the ear and periauricular area where there are only few mentions worldwide. Cases of the external auditory canal were excluded because this is a common site of occurrence of CS, due to the fact that ceruminous glands of the external auditory canal have apocrine features.

This entity is very interesting because although it is very common in salivary glands it is extremely rare in the cutaneous tissue. In addition, in order to avoid recurrence and its malignant transformation, it is of paramount importance that it has to be adequately excised with a cuff of normal tissue around it.

Keywords: ‘chondroid syringoma’, ’cutaneous mixed tumor’, ‘periauricular area’, ‘appendageal tumors’.