Case report http://dx.doi.org/10.3345/kjp.2012.55.6.215 Korean J Pediatr 2012;55(6):215-218 eISSN 1738-1061 • pISSN 2092-7258 A case of bilateral submandibular gland mucoceles in a 16-month-old child Hye Jung Choi, MD1, Seoung Geun Kim, MD 1 , Jong Duk Kim, MD2, Jun Hyeng Kim, MD2, Jun Hyen Kim, MD3, Sung Mi Kim, MD1 Departments of 1Pediatrics, 2Radiology, and 3General surgery, Busan St. Mary's Medical Center, Busan, Korea Received: 7 August 2011, Revised: 19 October 2011 Accepted: 30 November 2011 Corresponding author: Sung Mi Kim, MD Department of Pediatrics, Busan St. Mary's Medical Center, 25-14, Yongho-ro, 232beon-gil, Nam-gu, Busan, Korea Tel: +82-51-933-7984, Fax: +82-51-936-7531 E-mail: ksm7090@hanmail.net Mucoceles are common benign cystic lesions of the oral cavity that develop following extravasation or retention of mucous material from the major or minor salivary glands. Mucoceles are usually located in the lower lip (60 to 70% of cases), and the floor of the mouth is only involved in 6 to 15% of cases. Submandibular gland mucocele is extremely rare but should be considered in the differential diagnosis of swelling at the submandibular triangle in young children. We present the rare case of a 16-month-old child who was diagnosed with bilateral submandibular gland mucocele, presenting as serial swellings in both submandibular regions. We removed the cystic mass with the submandibular and sublingual glands to prevent recurrence. Copyright © 2012 by The Korean Pediatric Society This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by- nc/3.0/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Key words: Mucocele, Submandibular gland, Child Introduction The differential diagnosis of neck mass in childhood encompasses congenital, inflammatory, and neoplastic origins. The majority of pediatric neck masses are either of inflammatory or congenital origin. A congenital neck mass is usually present at birth, however may present at any age. Among the non-inflammatory neck masses in children, branchial cleft cyst, thyroglossal duct cyst, hemangioma, laryngocele, mucocele, teratoma, dermoid cyst, and thymic cyst are mostly well-known categories1). Mucoceles are common benign cystic lesions of the oral cavity that develop following extravasation or retention of mucous material from the major or minor salivary glands. Mucoceles are usually located in the lower lip (60 to 70% of cases), and the floor of the mouth is only involved in 6 to 15% of cases2). However submandibular mucocele is extremely rare, with only 10 cases reported in English literature3). The age of those affected has ranged from 7 to 39 years. In the Korean literature, Kang et al.4) reported the case of a retension cyst that replaced the submandibular gland in a 19-year-old man. Yoo et al.5) reported the unusual case of huge extravasation mucocele arising from the submandibular gland in a 21-year-old woman. However, to date there has been no description of a case involving a child under the age of 5 years. Herein, we report the rare case of submandibular mucocele in a 16-month-old young child who was referred to our department complaining of serial swellings in both submandibular regions. Case report A 16-month-old female child was referred to our department of pediatrics complaining of a swelling in the left submandibular region that had been enlarging progressively for several days. There was no history of local trauma, surgery, or infection on that side of the face and neck. Her medical and family histories were also unremarkable. Physical examination revealed a soft, mobile, well-circumscribed superficial mass 2×2 cm in diameter in the left submandibular area. 215