Cervical lymphangioma in the adult.

Cervical lymphangioma is rare among adults. Thirty-two patients with cervical lymphangioma were treated at the Mayo Clinic between 1950 and 1982. The records of these patients were reviewed to investigate the clinical and pathologic behavior of this lesion in persons more than 16 years of age. The lesions were seen in all decades of adult life and equally in men and women. Most lesions presented as a rapidly enlarging, asymptomatic mass. The anterior triangle of the neck was involved nearly as often as the posterior triangle, and right-sided locations predominated (72%). Histopathologic differentiation of the lesions into simplex, cavernous, and cystic lymphangiomas was not helpful in predicting clinical behavior. Surgical excision is the treatment of choice. The lesions may intimately involve the carotid sheath or adjacent nerves. Recurrence in 21% of the 28 patients on whom follow-up data were available mostly represented incomplete excision. Lymphangioma should be included in the differential diagnosis of a large asymptomatic neck mass of recent origin in the adult.