Grundlagen: Das Metastasierungsverhalten von Plattenepithelkarzinomen der Mundhöhle und des Oropharynx ist ein entscheidender Faktor in der Prognose. Im Rahmen der chirurgischen Behandlung der regionären Lymphknoten stehen verschiedene Formen der Dissektion und En-bloc-Resektion zur Verfügung.

27 patients, clinically suspected of having parotid tumours, were examined prospectively by sonography (high frequency linear array) and MRI (1.5T, T1- and T2-weighted SE sequences before, and T1-weighted SE sequences after contrast). In 23 patients, 25 intraglandular tumours were demonstrated (two were multicentric); they consisted of 6 malignant parotid tumours, 11 pleomorphic adenomas, 7 cystadenolymphomas and one oncocytic adenoma. 4 patients had extraglandular tumours. All tumours were demonstrated by either method, but two extraglandular tumours were incorrectly diagnosed by sonography as being intraglandular and 8 tumours (28 %) were not completely delineated by sonography. MRI localised the tumours correctly in all cases and demonstrated all lesions accurately, independent of their position or size. In summary, sonography appears suitable as the primary imaging method in the investigation of parotid tumours but in case of large, parapharyngeal or malignant tumours, MRI is clearly superior to sonography.