title: Papillary Thyroid Microcarcinoma with a Large Cystic Dilated Lymph Node Metastasis to the Neck Mimicking a Branchial Cleft Cyst: A Potential Pitfall.
abstract: Lateral cervical cystic mass in a young adult very rarely could be a first sign of an occult thyroid papillary microcarcinoma metastasis. In this paper, we presented a 37-year-old male patient whose preoperative 6 cm left lateral cervical cystic mass was initially diagnosed as branchial cleft cyst, but then the postoperative histopathological examination of the mass was revealed as papillary thyroid carcinoma metastasis. Preoperative fine needle aspiration biopsy was relevant with a branchial cleft cyst. In the left thyroid lobe there were 3 solid nodules with 4, 6, and 12 mm dimensions, respectively. One of the nodules had malignant well-differentiated cells diagnosed after fine needle aspiration biopsy. After total thyroidectomy, histopathologic evaluation of biopsy material's showed papillary thyroid microcarcinomas. This case indicates that especially in a young adult lateral cervical cystic mass should be carefully considered preoperatively for the possibility of metastatic occult thyroid carcinoma, especially for papillary carcinoma in differential diagnosis, and evaluation of the thyroid gland should be taken into account.
authors.affiliation: Department of Otorhinolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, Istanbul Medeniyet University Goztepe Training and Research Hospital, 34730 Istanbul, Turkey.
authors.forename: Osman Ilkay
authors.initials: OI
authors.lastname: Ozdamar
authors.affiliation: Department of Otorhinolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, Istanbul Medeniyet University Goztepe Training and Research Hospital, 34730 Istanbul, Turkey.
authors.forename: Gul Ozbilen
authors.initials: GO
authors.lastname: Acar
authors.affiliation: Department of Otorhinolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, Istanbul Medeniyet University Goztepe Training and Research Hospital, 34730 Istanbul, Turkey.
authors.forename: Cigdem
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Kafkasli
authors.affiliation: Department of Otorhinolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, Istanbul Medeniyet University Goztepe Training and Research Hospital, 34730 Istanbul, Turkey.
authors.forename: M Tayyar
authors.initials: MT
authors.lastname: Kalcioglu
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, Istanbul Medeniyet University Goztepe Training and Research Hospital, 34730 Istanbul, Turkey.
authors.forename: Tulay
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Zenginkinet
authors.affiliation: Department of Endocrinology and Metabolic Diseases, Istanbul Medeniyet University Goztepe Training and Research Hospital, 34730 Istanbul, Turkey.
authors.forename: H Gonca
authors.initials: HG
authors.lastname: Tamer