Computed tomography of cervical and retropharyngeal lymph nodes: normal anatomy, variants of normal, and applications in staging head and neck cancer. Part I: normal anatomy.

The retropharyngeal and cervical lymph-node-bearing areas in 30 patients were examined with computed tomography (CT) to determine the range of normal variation in these nodal groups. The data agree with those in the pathologic, anatomic, and surgical literature, and indicate that CT can very precisely determine the size and gross morphology of normal nodes in the retropharyngeal region and the neck. This should have important applications in the management of patients with head and neck cancer.