Pediatria pre prax 5/2022

A thyroglossal duct cysts in children

thyroglossal duct cyst (TGDC) is the most common mass found in the midline of the neck. We evaluated a cohort of 77 pediatric patients diagnosed and treated for suspected TGDC at the Children’s Otorhinolaryngology Clinic of the Faculty of Medicine, Comenius University and the National Institute of Pediatric Medicine in Bratislava from 2008 to 2017. Based on a retrospective evaluation of their medical records, we observed: age, sex, symptomatology, types of surgical procedures, histological results, perop- and postoperative complications and recurrences of TGDC. In the cohort the group of girls predominated, 73 cases were diagnosed with TGDC, 71 patients underwent Schlange’s operation, more than half of the patients had no symptoms except for the presence of a tumour in the neck, and the others had predominantly inflammatory symptoms. Per- and postoperative complications were rare. Recurrence occurred in 6 patients (4.38 %), 2/3 of whom had preoperative cyst infection. We compared the obtained results with similar studies published by foreign authors. In this paper, we highlight the continuing importance of the Schlange and Sistrunk surgical techniques in TGDC surgery for their success due to the low risk of recurrence, as well as the association between cyst infection in the preoperative period with an increased risk of recurrence of TGDC.

Keywords: thyroglossal duct cysts, Schlange’s operation technique, Sistrunk’s operation technique, complications, recurrence