Focal myositis in the mylohyoid muscle of an adult

The patient who presents with a new, progressively enlarging neck mass repr esents a common problem for the otolaryngologist. The purpose of this repor t is to present a case of focal myositis that presented as an enlarging sub mental mass in an adult, and to review this unusual entity. Despite its rar ity, however, focal myositis should be considered in the evaluation of any patient presenting with a rapidly enlarging mass in the head and neck regio n. First described by Heffner et al. in 1977,(1) focal myositis is a benign, i nflammatory pseudotumour of skeletal muscle that most often presents in the extremities. It appears to be considerably less common in the head and nec k, with only 16 such cases described in the English literature, the earlies t of these being reported by Ellis and Brannon(2) and Ho et al.(3) in 1979.