A 50-year-old male, presenting with severe suboccipital headache for half a month and was impressed as a lesion in the central nervous system. Fortunately, the symptoms of sorethroat and painful swelling over left neck region progressed. Then the retropharyngeal abscess was diagnosed by way of X-ray and CT scan of neck. We performed the emergent incision and drainage, using proper antibiotics and controlled his diabetes mellitus. Finally, he recovered smoothly.