Invisible Parotid Gland Pleomorphic Adenoma on Contrast Enhanced-Computed Tomography

Korean Journal of Head & Neck Oncology 2016;32(2):85-89.
Published online November 30, 2016.

Jae Hyung Heo;Da Mi Kim;Bon Seok Koo;Jae Won Chang

조영증강 전산화단층촬영검사에서 보이지 않는 이하선의 다형선종

허재형;김다미;구본석;장재원

Abstract

Pleomorphic adenomas is the most common tumor of parotid gland and usually located and confined in superficial lobe of parotid gland. Computed tomography (CT) is commonly used to initially evaluate salivary gland lesion, but contrast-enhanced CT may sometimes fail to reveal lesions in spite of a high clinical suspicion. For this reason, ultrasonography (US) can be used as the first-line image work-up in some cases of parotid gland benign tumors. We experienced a case of a 60-year-old woman without underlying disease presenting a palpable parotid mass in which the initial CT examination was reported as ‘no obvious mass detected’. However, the lesion was revealed in US and histologically confirmed as pleomorphic adenoma. The patient underwent superficial parotidectomy through modified facelift incision. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of invisible major salivary gland tumor on CT in the Korean literature.

Key Words: Computed tomography(CT), Invisible pleomorphic adenoma, Ultrasonography(US)