AbstractTwenty‐seven cases of benign laryngeal papillomas, both single and multiple variants, were analysed for human papilomavirus (HPV) by DNA slot‐blot hybridization chiefly to determine the pattern of infection in Hong Kong Chinese. DNA was extracted from paraffin blocks of formalin‐fixed tissue and probed separately for HPV 6, 11, 16, and 18. Sixteen cases (59 per cent) showed the presence of at least one of these four HPV genomes. Thirteen cases (48 per cent) were positive for HPV 11 only. Three other cases (11 per cent) showed triple positivity for HPV 6, 11, and 16. None were positive for HPV 18. The predominance of HPV 11 infection contrasts with other series which have shown either an almost equal distribution of HPV 6 and 11 or a predominance of HPV 6. The finding of HPV 16 in three cases was unexpected. Using the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) with primers complementary to the upstream regulatory region of the HPV 16 viral DNA, the presence of HPV 16 genome was confirmed in all three cases. As the number of HPV 16‐positive cases in this study is small, analysis of more cases using fresh biopsy material and a wider range of HPV type‐specific PCR primers is warranted to determine the relative incidence of HPV subtypes in these benign laryngeal papillomas.