An additional challenge for head and neck radiologists: anatomic variants posing a surgical risk - a pictorial review

Davide Farina; Davide Lombardi; Martina Bertuletti; Giovanni Palumbo; Ivan Zorza; Marco Ravanelli

doi:10.1186/s13244-019-0794-7

An additional challenge for head and neck radiologists: anatomic variants posing a surgical risk - a pictorial review

Insights Imaging. 2019 Dec 2;10(1):112. doi: 10.1186/s13244-019-0794-7.

Authors

Davide Farina¹, Davide Lombardi², Martina Bertuletti³, Giovanni Palumbo³, Ivan Zorza³, Marco Ravanelli³

Affiliations

¹ Department of Radiology, University of Brescia, P.zzale Spedali Civili 1, 25123, Brescia, Italy. davide.farina@unibs.it.
² Department of Otolaryngology, University of Brescia, Brescia, Italy.
³ Department of Radiology, University of Brescia, P.zzale Spedali Civili 1, 25123, Brescia, Italy.

Abstract

Anatomic variants in the head and neck are quite numerous and occur frequently: a minority of them increase the risk of complications during surgical procedures and may be visualized on cross-sectional images. As some of these complications are potentially fatal, awareness (and accurate reporting) of such variants is a basic responsibility of radiologists, particularly when surgery in the pertinent anatomic area is under consideration.

Keywords: Anatomic variants; CT; Head and neck; MRI; Surgery.

Publication types

Review