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Second branchial cleft cysts and other lateral cystic lesions in the neck: a five-year retrospective study: Introduction: A branchial cleft cyst is one of the congenital anomalies of the branchial apparatus. Branchial cysts con- stitute 20-80% of the incidences of branchial anomalies in the neck (cyst, sinus or fistula). Approximately 90-95% of anomalies originate from the second branchial remnants.
Materials and methods: A retrospective analysis of a tertiary university hospital.
Results: Twenty-three patients were included: 12 (52.2%) female and 11 male (47.8%). The average age was 39 years (min. 15/max. 65). These 23 patients presented at our clinic with a cervical cystic mass, of which (52.2%) had a right cystic mass and 11 (47.8%) had a left cystic mass. Fine-needle aspiration (FNA) and cytological examinations were performed on 16 (69.6%) patients to assess whether an epithelial structure was present in the cyst. Three patients were diagnosed after surgery: one with a Warthin tumour, another with cystic metastasis of oropharyngeal carcinoma in the right tonsil, and the third with papillary thyroid tumour metastasis. Post-operative complications were noted in two (8.6%) patients: one with a post-surgical infection and the other with transient hypoglossal palsy, from which they recovered after three months.
Conclusion: Pre-operative diagnostics including FNA cytology (FNAC) and radiological imaging can be helpful when carrying out differential diagnoses of cystic lesions in the neck. Complete surgical excisions of branchial cysts are the gold standard of treatment, which help us to establish a definitive diagnosis and exclude the rare occurrence of bran-chiogenic carcinoma.