[Bilateral carotid artery aneurysms in extensive cancer of the base of the tongue. A rare differential diagnosis in cervical swellings].

Enlarged cervical lymph nodes are a common feature in advanced head and neck cancer. In the present paper the case of a 58 year old male patient is reported, who was suffering from a huge carcinoma of the base of tongue. He also complained of bilateral cervical swellings, which were regarded as enlarged, metastatic lymph nodes prior to operation. When performing a bilateral, elective neck dissection, the swellings appeared as aneurysms of the extracranial part of the internal carotid artery. Aneurysms of the supraaortic branches are very rare and mainly located in the subclavian or axillary arteries. Only a few cases of bilateral aneurysms of the internal carotid artery have been described in the literature so far. Nevertheless, this peculiar morphological feature must be considered in the differential diagnosis of bilateral enlarged lymph nodes in head and neck cancer patients.