CT examination has been used in the preoperative examination of patients with head and neck cancer. The accuracy of CT in detecting nodal metastases has not been well established. We studied 35 patients (41 neck specimens) with head and neck cancer who underwent neck dissection. Surgical pathologic findings were compared with preoperative CT scan to establish the diagnostic accuracy for cervical lymph node metastases. The results of physical examination, CT scans of neck and histologic examinations were compared each other. The overall diagnostic accuracy of CT was 83.3%. Comparison with clinical accuracy shows the CT scan to be superior to the clinical examination in spite of careful physical examination, particularly in detecting occult metastases.