Neck masses are usually easily noticed because they cause swelling in the neck. Even a small mass is noticed by our patients and they touch it with their hands or even grasp the mass all around and bring it to us and show it. Our patients often have doubts and anxious mood about these kits. In fact, the majority of these masses detected are benign. In other words, it is not caused by a bad disease, malignancy or cancer. Very few of them may be due to such reasons. Although most neck masses are due to benign diseases, of course, a detailed investigation should be carried out. In the investigation, neck ultrasound, detailed blood tests, cultures, x-rays and, if necessary, tomography and MRI may also be taken.
Neck masses generally occur in children as a result of swelling of the neck lymph nodes due to throat infections. In this condition, which we call lymphadenomegaly, the lymph nodes, which are a part of the body defense system, swell easily because they actively defend against microbes. They will subside once the infection is over, but lymph node swelling may take months to subside. For this reason, there is no need to panic just because the swelling does not go down immediately. However, it is necessary to thoroughly investigate the lymph nodes that become swollen, hard, immobile and painless even though the infection is gone. Because such lymph node swelling may be the result of the spread of leukemia, lymphoma or other organ cancers, which we call metastasis. Do not immediately jump to bad conclusions from what we have explained, as we said before, neck swelling is very unlikely to occur due to serious diseases such as cancer, which we call malignant.
Other causes of neck masses include chronic specific infections such as infectious mononucleosis and tuberculosis.
If a definitive diagnosis cannot be reached after neck masses are investigated by laboratory methods, biopsy is essential for a definitive diagnosis.
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