HEAD AND NECK LIPOMAS - SONOGRAPHIC APPEARANCE

PURPOSE: The diagnosis of cervical lipoma may not always be clinically apparent, in which case patients are frequently referred for sonograp hy, The purpose of this study was to document the sonographic features of head and neck lipomas, METHODS: Twenty-five patients with soft-tis sue masses in the neck had sonography as their initial imaging study, A lipoma was suspected on the basis of findings at clinical examinatio n in only eight of these patients, Lipoma was confirmed by fine-needle aspiration cytology in 11 patients, by excision biopsy in five patien ts, by CT in two patients, and by clinical examination with clinical s onographic follow-up (6 months to 2 years) in seven cases, RESULTS: Li pomas were well-defined (88%), compressible (100%), elliptical masses with the longest diameter parallel to the skin surface, All contained multiple echogenic lines parallel to the skin surface,vith no evidence of posterior enhancement or attenuation and no flow on color Doppler sonography, Compared with adjacent muscle, 76% of all lipomas were hyp erechoic, 8% isoechoic, and 16% hypoechoic, CONCLUSION: The characteri stic sonographic appearance of head and neck lipomas is that of an ell iptical mass parallel to the skin surface that is hyperechoic relative to adjacent muscle and that contains linear echogenic lines at right angles to the ultrasound beam.