use of imaging techniques in detection of parotid masses location compared to surgery

objective: the purpose of this study was to compare the use of cross-sectional imaging techniques verses surgery in locating parotid masses. material and methods: our study was performed on patients assumed to have parotid masses from dec 2010 to dec 2011. before surgery, imaging studies (computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging) of parotid were done. after surgery, we compared the surgical findings with cross-sectional imaging. after data collection we used statistical analysis and spss 19 and mcnemar's test. result: in this study 23 patients were analyzed based on imaging and surgical findings. a total of 14 cases were male and nine cases were female and the mean age was 46 years. sensitivity of cross- sectional imaging in predicting the surgical location of superficial and extended lesions of the parotid, using lateral margin of retro mandibular vein, was 83% and 100%, respectively. the overall accuracy of cross-sectional imaging for predicting the surgical location of parotid lesions was 86.9%. conclusion: based on the findings of this study, cross-sectional imaging has valuable sensitivity and accuracy for predicting the surgical location of parotid lesions.