Midline (Thyroglossal) neck cyst: experience with surgical treatment and soft tissue reconstruction

Congenital head and neck lesions, although they can be detected before the age of one, are often diagnosed when adult patients present to a maxillofacial surgery clinic. Pediatricians are the first to verify the presence of such pathologies. To conduct a subsequent differential diagnosis, it is important to rely on anamnesis data and the characteristics of the clinical picture, taking into account a wide range of etiological factors,

Surgical treatment of median cervical cysts is complex due to the risks of adverse outcomes, such as compromised aesthetics of the anterior cervical tissues, laryngeal maladaptation, and dysphagia associated with hyoid bone resection. Furthermore, loss of the bone framework in this area causes soft tissue deformity, which leads to decreased psychosocial adaptation and quality of life in patients postoperatively.

The Sistrunk procedure, which was recently the gold standard for the treatment of median neck cysts, is currently losing its status as a universal method of choice due to the integration of plastic and reconstructive surgery approaches in the treatment of neoplasms of the head and neck organs.

The results of a new surgical treatment for median cervical cysts has been presented in this article. This method combines cystectomy with resection of the hyoid bone and subsequent soft tissue reconstruction of the anterior neck using a cosmetic submental approach. This approach results in early social rehabilitation of patients and reduces the risk of adverse effects on the neck.

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