2016 Volume 52 Issue 6 Pages 1163-1168
Purpose: The aim of this study was to clarify the clinicopathological features of bronchogenic cyst cases according to the site of lesion to improve diagnosis and treatment.
Methods: From 1989 to 2015, 13 patients with bronchogenic cysts were treated in our institution. The clinical and histopathological findings of these patients were retrospectively reviewed using medical records. Diagnoses of bronchogenic cysts were confirmed histopathologically.
Results: The ages of the patients (4 females and 9 males) ranged from 0 to 12 years (mean age: 9 years). The sites of the lesions were as follows: the mediastinum in 7 patients, the thoracic cavity in 4 patients, and the neck in 2 patients. The initial signs and symptoms were as follows: a neck mass in 2 patients, fever in 1 patient, and chest and back pain in 3 patients. Regarding the histopathological findings, the bronchial glands and tracheal cartilages as common features of a bronchogenic cyst were recognized in 11 patients, but not in 2 patients.
Conclusion: Surgical treatment for progressive symptoms in patients with symptomatic cysts in the mediastinum becomes more challenging with increasing cyst size. An increase in the size results in severe adherence of the cyst to the trachea and esophagus. Bronchogenic cysts in the thoracic cavity can be divided into 2 types, extralobar and intralobar. Preoperative diagnosis of bronchogenic cysts in the neck is difficult because they are distant from the trachea.
