COMPARISON OF COMPUTED-TOMOGRAPHY AND SURGICAL FINDINGS IN DEEP NECK INFECTIONS

Computed tomography is routinely used in the evaluation of patients su spected to have deep neck infections. This 10-year retrospective study compares preoperative computed tomography scan reports with intraoper ative findings in 38 patients who underwent surgical exploration of th e parapharyngeal or retropharyngeal space within 48 hours of their rad iographic assessment. Overall, intraoperative findings confirmed compu ted tomography scan interpretation in 76.3% of the patients. The false -positive rate was 13.2%, and the false-negative rate was 10.5%. The s ensitivity of computed tomography scan for detection of parapharyngeal space or retropharyngeal space abscess was 87.9%. This study's docume ntation of false-positive computed tomography scans in the evaluation of deep neck infections emphasizes the importance of correlating radio logic interpretation with clinical examination before surgical interve ntion.