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A pediatric case of life-threatening airway obstruction caused by a cervicomediastinal thymic cyst

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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.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Pediatric Surgery, The University of Tokyo Hospital, 7-3-1 Hongou, Bunkyou-ku, Tokyo, 113-8655, Japan

    Makoto Komura, Yutaka Kanamori, Masahiko Sugiyama & Tadashi Iwanaka

  2. Department of Pathology, The University of Tokyo Hospital, Tokyo, Japan

    Noriyoshi Fukushima

Authors
  1. Makoto Komura
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  2. Yutaka Kanamori
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  3. Masahiko Sugiyama
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  4. Noriyoshi Fukushima
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  5. Tadashi Iwanaka
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Makoto Komura.

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Komura, M., Kanamori, Y., Sugiyama, M. et al. A pediatric case of life-threatening airway obstruction caused by a cervicomediastinal thymic cyst. Pediatr Radiol 40, 1569–1571 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00247-010-1782-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00247-010-1782-8

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