Int J Thyroidol.  2017 Nov;10(2):123-126. 10.11106/ijt.2017.10.2.123.

A Case of Ectopic Lateral Cervical Thymic Cyst Mimicking as a Second Branchial Cleft Cyst

• Gim HG
• Roh MS
• Hong JC
• Park HS

• KMID: 2396818
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.11106/ijt.2017.10.2.123

Abstract

Cervical thymic cysts are rare lesions of neck mass often misdiagnosed clinically as branchial cleft cyst and are mostly diagnosed, pathologically after surgery. The authors applied surgical resection to a 34-year-old man with right upper neck mass, which was misdiagnosed preoperatively as a second branchial cleft cyst. The pathological tissue examination result showed that the patient was diagnosed with a cervical thymic cyst. The thymic cyst of the lateral neck has not been reported from adult in Korean. Herein, we present the case with review of the related literature.

Keyword

Thymus gland; Thymic cyst; Neck

MeSH Terms

Adult
Branchial Region*
Branchioma*
Humans
Mediastinal Cyst*
Neck
Thymus Gland

Figure

• 

  Fig. 1 About 1.8×1.3 cm sized, central low attenuation lesion is found in the right carotid space (A, noncontrast computed tomography, B, enhanced computed tomography).

• 

  Fig. 2 (A) Microscopic view shows degenerating Hassall's corpuscles within thymic lymphoid tissue (H&E staining, ×20, arrow).(B) The Hassall's corpuscle is seen (H&E staining, ×200, arrow).

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