INTRODUCTION: The neck is a part of the body that has many vital structures in a relatively small region with complex anatomy. Various pathologies of the neck may present as neck swellings. The mass may be first noticed by the patient, other individual or by the physician as an incidental finding during physical examination. With the improvement of CT imaging techniques, shorter examination time, higher resolution imaging, Multidetector CT is particularly useful in evaluation of neck masses. AIM OF STUDY: To assess the role of MDCT in neck masses for characterization of nature of lesion (benign or malignant) and organ of origin and to Correlate with tissue diagnosis wherever possible. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Patients presenting with clinical suspicion of neck masses and referred for MDCT neck to the Department of Radio-diagnosis and Imaging, DMCH, Ludhiana were included in this study. RESULTS: 18.9% patients were in 31-40 years age group. Mean age for malignant lesions was 58.3 years. Most common space involved was visceral space (48.9%) and the most common diagnosis was benign thyroid nodule(s) (30%). Many of malignant lesions showed ill-defined margins (68.18%), necrosis (62.5%), heterogeneous enhancement (68.2%), bony infiltration (20.8%), obliteration of fat planes (8.3%), metastasis (45.8%), involvement of adjacent neck spaces (37.5%), vascular involvement in form of internal jugular vein thrombosis (8.3%) of cases. In diagnosing malignant lesions, CT had a sensitivity of 95.83%, specificity of 96.30%, positive predictive value of 92.00%, negative predictive value of 98.11% and accuracy of 96.15%. CONCLUSION: MDCT has high accuracy for characterization of a lesion as benign or malignant. It provides the best possible contrast of soft tissue (with the choice of appropriate delay, contrast agent volume, flow rate and scanning time), visualization of vascular structures, extent of lesion, bone and airway details, thus helps in making diagnosis and deciding further course of management.