[Ectopic salivary gland tissue in the neck. Morphology, diagnostic and histogenetic problems. Apropos of 3 cases]

3 case reports of ectopic salivary gland tissue in the neck are presented. A localized swelling was found in the upper or the middle neck along the anterior border of the sternocleidomastoid muscle. It was not associated with any draining sinus opening on the skin. After surgical excision, the histopathological study demonstrated around a large "cystic" duct few or many lobules of salivary gland tissue containing serous acini and ducts. The embryogenesis of these heterotopies within remanants of the branchial apparatus could be demonstrated in one of our cases by the association of a true branchial cleft cyst with an ectopic salivary gland.