Introduction:
The presence of cervical lymph node metastases with extracapsular expansion (ECE) in patients with squamous cell carcinoma in the head and neck area is important in terms of disease prognosis and therapy. The aim of this study was to determine whether the extracapsular lymph node expansion can be adequately assessed by means of preoperative computed tomography.
Methods:
Thirty patients with histologically secured squamous cell carcinoma in the head and neck area, which were subjected to a neck dissection and in which preoperative CT imaging showed a cervical lymph node involvement were retrospectively analyzed. The results of the histopathological examination were compared with the CT findings, in particular with regard to a extracapsular lymph node involvement.
Results:
In the histopathological examination of the neck dissection preparations of the patients with preoperative suspect cervical lymph nodes in CT, 20% showed no cervical lymph node metastases. A histopathological proven extracapsular expansion was detected in 33% of the patients. CT-morphologically, these patients showed no direct indications of extracapsular involvement.
Conclusion:
According to preliminary results pre-operative CT imaging before neck dissection in patients with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma seems to have only a limited validity in terms of detection of extracapsular lymph node involvement.
