A pediatric case of life-threatening airway obstruction caused by a cervicomediastinal thymic cyst.
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.
Komura
Makoto
M
Department of Pediatric Surgery, The University of Tokyo Hospital, Bunkyou-ku, Tokyo, Japan. komura-tky@umin.ac.jp
Kanamori
Yutaka
Y
Sugiyama
Masahiko
M
Fukushima
Noriyoshi
N
Iwanaka
Tadashi
T
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