Table 1.

Differential diagnosis of pediatric head and neck masses

Congenital masses	Inflammatory masses	Neoplastic masses
Thyroglossal cyst Branchial cleft cyst Vascular tumor Dermoid cyst Teratoma Bronchogenic cyst Thymic cyst Laryngocele	Reactive lymphadenopathy Bacterial or viral adenopathy Granulomatous diseases  tuberculosis  toxoplasmosis  sarcoidosis  histoplasmosis  cat scratch disease Others Sialadenitis	Benign  lipoma  fibroma  neurofibroma  thyroid nodule  salivary gland tumor Malignant  lymphoma (Hodgkin's disease, non-Hodgkin's lymphoma)  neural tumors (neurobalstoma, retinoblastoma)  thyroid malignancies  soft tissue sarcomas (RMS, non-RMS)  nasopharyngeal carcinoma  salivary gland malignancies  metastatic disease

Modified from Dickson and Davidoff.