Head and Neck ImagingRetromolar trigone, pathology
A
lesion in the
retromolar trigone
requiring imaging is nearly always a
squamous cell carcinoma, head and neck
. Cancer originating at this location rapidly spreads to neighbouring structures, such as medially to the anterior tonsillar pillar in the oropharynx, anteriorly to the
buccinator space
, posteromedially to the
parapharyngeal space
via the pterygomandibular space, inferiorly to the floor of the mouth, and superiorly to the nasopharynx and maxillary tuberosity. As the retromolar trigone overlies the
mandible
, early bone invasion may occur. Much of the
tumour spread may occur subclinically, but is visualized with dedicated
CT or MR imaging (
Fig. 1).
The retromolar trigone is fairly commonly involved by lateral spread of
oropharyngeal cancer
.
RH
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Already registered? Enter your e-mail in the window below.Re-registerFig. 01a
a. Axial contrast-enhanced CT-image in a patient with a ulcerative lesion in the left retromolar trigone. A fairly large, inhomogeneous soft tissue mass (arrows) is seen, centred on the retromolar trigone, eroding the underlying mandibular bone.
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Retromolar trigone, pathology, Fig. 01a (a) | | Retromolar trigone, pathology, Fig. 01b (b) | | Retromolar trigone, pathology, Fig. 01c (c) |