Actinomycosis of the parotid masquerading as malignant neoplasm.

Bipin T Varghese¹ , Paul Sebastian¹ , K Ramachandran² and Manoj Pandey¹

¹Department of Surgical Oncology, Regional Cancer Centre, Trivandrum 695011, Kerala, India

²Department of Imageology, Regional Cancer Centre, Trivandrum 695011, Kerala, India

author email corresponding author email

BMC Cancer 2004, 4:7doi:10.1186/1471-2407-4-7


Published:	4 March 2004

Abstract

Background

Primary actinomycosis of the parotid gland is of rare occurrence and can mimic a malignant neoplasm both clinically as well as radiologically.

Case presentation

We present here a case of primary actinomycosis of the parotid gland presenting with a parotid mass lesion with erosion of skull bones.

Conclusions

Clinical presentation of cervico-facial actinomycosis is characterized by the presence of a suppurative or indurative mass with discharging sinuses. The lesion demonstrates characteristic features on fine needle aspiration cytology and histology, however at times the findings are equivocal.