pediatric neck mass

Introduction  neck masses include a wide variety of diagnostic possibilities, with more than 60 etiologies that depend on clinical aspects such as age, location and time of disease progression. the interview and physical examination guide research that cross the neck masses in pediatric patients in 3 groups: infectious / inflammatory, and neoplastic embryonic remnants. the aim of this study was to present a protocol for evaluation of neck masses in the pediatric age group, based on a review of literature on the subject and experience of this service. materials and methods survey of literature data from pubmed / medline, google scholar and scopus database without language restriction, since 1980 sources, with the mesh term pediatric neck mass.  results prepared flowchart guidelines to be followed according with diagnostic suspicions. patients were divided into 3 groups according to the initial clinical manifestations and according to etiological hypotheses formulated recommend evaluations protocols.  conclusion the standardization of the evaluation of neck masses in children proves valuable and can help in the differential diagnosis of different etiologies involved.