ABSTRACT
Amyloidosis is the deposition of abnormal proteinaceous substance between cells of various tissues and organs. Several cases of localized amyloidosis are reported in the literature but few data are known concerning the risk of evolution towards systemic amyloidosis. The amyloid fibrils derived from monoclonal immunoglobulin light chains in 16 cases. Too often, because of a fortuitous discovery, no frozen sample was performed. Symptomatic treatment was usually prescribed: laser resection and stenting in pharyngolaryngeal amyloidosis, endoscopic resection and stenting when amyloidosis deposition was in the urinary tract. Three patients were treated shortly with corticosteroids and melphalan, without any improvement. One patient died because of lung cancer, another one because of laryngeal perforation after progression of amyloidosis deposit. Localized amyloidosis lesions might be progressive and require long term follow-up, but this disease does not improve towards systemic amyloidosis.
