The 48 sonograms of 46 patients with neck masses were retrospectively reviewed to assess the superiority of ultrasonography.
Neck masses were divided into salivary glands, thyroid gland, cervical lymph node origin masses, and others. The salivary gland masses(16 cases), included pleomorpic adenoma(5 cases), sialadenitis (9 cases), and abscess (2 cases). The thyroid gland masses(7 cases), included thyroiditis(2 cases), goiter(4 cases) and malignant tumor(1 case). The cervical lymphadenopathy(10 cases) included Inflammatory(7 cases) and neoplastic(3 cases). The other masses included branchial cleft cyst(2 cases), thyroglossal duct cyst(2 cases), cystic hygroma(2 cases), abscess(2 cases) etc.
Real-time ultrasonography with water bag adapted linear array 5.00 MHz transducer enabled us to ascertain mass character in detail. Sonography is very useful for differentiating a soild lesion from a cystic one, for differentiating an intraglandular lesion from a superficially located lesion extrinsic to the gland. On the other hand, CT is the method of choice for seperating. lesions of the deep portion of the neck from adjacent structures. The sonography does not visualize the entire deep portion at the neck but it is not a major drawback of the method because majority of lesion originate from the superficial portion.
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