neck masses seen in 5 tehran medical centers

we have studied the patients who had a neck mass on presentation in five medical centers of tehran univ. of medical sciences (infectious disease department, ent department, dentistry faculty, cancer institute) during a period of 14 months. sixty patients, 20 women and 40 men, were eligible for our study. all patients underwent clinical and paraclinical work up and finally had histologic diagnosis. the data were analyzed and results were as following %67 men, %33 women. age distribution showed %10 patients under 16 year old (children), 45% between 16 and 35 years old (young adults) and %45 above 35 years old. the youngest patient was a two years old child and the oldest one was 80 years old man, cervical regions including preauricular, submandibular submental lateral and medial aspects of neck involvement in different age and sex groups were studied. the common involved areas in children group were submandibular and lateral neck masses. in young groups, submandibular, lateral and medial neck masses were also determined. in older ages and among men, the lateral neck masses were common, meanwhile, the majority of medial neck masses were in women. the prevalent histologic diagnoses were respectively lymphoma, goiter, metastatic tumors and abscess. age and histologic diagnostic analyses showed the further incidence of hemangioma in children group (<16 y), abscess and goiter in young and metastatic tumors and lymphoma in older ages. different etiologies were discussed in the paper.