Clinics in diagnostic imaging (20). Masseter muscle haemangioma

A 13-year-old Chinese girl presented with a hard mass over the angle of the left jaw. No overlying skin change was evident and no cervical lymph nodes were palpable. Ultrasound showed dense calcific foci within the left masseter muscle, suspicious of phleboliths. This was confirmed on plain radiography. A 99mTc red cell scintigram showed an haemangioma. The patient was treated conservatively in view of these findings. The multimodality approach to imaging of lesions in the angle of the jaw using radiography, sialography, ultrasound, ultrasound guided fine-needle aspiration and computed tomography is discussed.