Primary Oropharyngeal and Laryngeal Histoplasmosis - A Diagnostic Challenge

Histoplasmosis is a rare tropical disease caused by Yeast-like dimorphic fungus Histoplasma capsulatum.Granulomatous diseases caused by infectious agents are being encounted more frequently nowadays. Infection by histoplasma capsulatum is one such granulomatous disease. In non-endemic areas, histoplasmosis poses a diagnostic challenge, especially since the presenting lesions can mimic carcinoma. The clinician should keep in mind histoplasmosis as a differential diagnosis when dealing with granulomatous lesions of oral cavity, oropharynx and larynx in both immunocompetent and immunocomparised patients. The histopathologist must be informed about the possibility of histoplasmosis, because special dyes have to be used to confirm this diagnosis. The treatment is mainly medical with Amphotericin B which remains the gold standard for treatment of this disease. The rarity of this disease in this part of country and variable clinical presentation prompted the authors to report this case