Abstract
Nasopharyngeal cyst is a rare disease. We report the case of a 5-year-old male child with sleep apnea who was diagnosed as having a nasopharyngeal cyst located in the lateral wall. Apnomonitoring was performed for the patient at the clinic, and the Apnea-Hypoxia Index was 16.3/hr. The cyst was prone to recurrent infections and the snoring persisted, therefore, we performed fiberoptic rhinoscopic-assisted marsupialization of the cyst under general anesthasia. The location of the cyst and histopathological examination of the cyst wall suggested the diagnosis of a branchial cyst. Two years have elapsed since the operation, and there has been no evidence of reccurence. Only 15 cases of nasopharyngeal branchial cyst have been reported in Japan so far, and among these, children with these cysts usualy presented with evidence of sleep apnea. In this report, the diagnosis and treatment of nasopharyngeal branchial cyst are discussed.
