Space-Occupying Lesions of the Retropharyngeal Space: An Anatomical Study With Application to Postoperative Retropharyngeal Hematomas.

A relatively small volume of fluid in the RPS can cause the esophagus/trachea to radiographically deviate. The esophagus is the structure in the RPS to be most influenced by mass effect. The mean volume of fluid required to cause clinically identifiable changes to the normal neck contour was nearly double the volume required to cause 1 cm of esophageal/tracheal deviation in a cadaver model.