The authors present two cases of parapharyngeal ganglioneuromas. This, as a rule well differentiated benign neuroectodermal tumour, is usually in the posterior mediastinum and in a retroperitoneal position. It is very rarely found in the parapharyngeal space. The first case involved a ganglioneuroma in a two-year-old girl with a typical histological picture. The second patient was a 58-year-old woman where histological examination of the tumor proved signs of malignization and the affection was consistent with a malignant schwannoma which developed in the ganglioneuroma. We assume that a manifestation of malignization in a de novo formed ganglioneuroma was involved and not secondary maturing of a ganglioneuroma from a neuroblastoma.

        Key words: parapharyngeal space, ganglioneuroma, malignant schwannoma, neuroblastoma.