Ultrasoundexamination of the head and neck

Sonography of the neck and face is highly suited for confirming visible, pa l pable or generally tentative findings. A method of performing a systemati c examination will be described in detail and followed by numerous examples descriptive of soft tissue pathologies of the face, salivary glands and ly mph nodes. The thyroid gland will be dealt with in a different report. The criterion that applied to all masses was that it was only possible to rende r a tentative diagnosis to be subsequently confirmed by sonography-guided f ine-needle aspiration. Histological follow-up, however, was never excluded. If a finding could not be narrowed down by sonography, the next step was t o use computerized or nuclear magnetic resonance imaging.