title: A pediatric case of life-threatening airway obstruction caused by a cervicomediastinal thymic cyst.
abstract: Most patients with thymic cysts complain of a slowly enlarging, asymptomatic cervical mass. Only 6-10% suffer dysphagia, dyspnoea, stridor, cervical pain or vocal paralysis. In some rare cases sudden onset of severe dyspnoea or asphyxia is the first symptom, especially in neonates and small infants. We report a unique case of a 20-month-old child, who required emergency tracheal intubation due to asphyxia. Cervicomediastinal thymic cyst might need to be included in causes of life-threatening airway obstruction in young children.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatric Surgery, The University of Tokyo Hospital, Bunkyou-ku, Tokyo, Japan. komura-tky@umin.ac.jp
authors.forename: Makoto
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Komura
authors.forename: Yutaka
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Kanamori
authors.forename: Masahiko
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Sugiyama
authors.forename: Noriyoshi
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Fukushima
authors.forename: Tadashi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Iwanaka
mesh_terms: D000402:Airway Obstruction / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000209:etiology* / Q000601:surgery / Q000628:therapy; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007442:Intubation, Intratracheal; D008476:Mediastinal Cyst / Q000150:complications* / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000601:surgery; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed