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Arch Otolaryngol Head Neck Surg. 2008;134(10):1115.

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Diagnosis: Cervical thymic cyst

Cervical thymic cysts are rare lesions with an unclear pathogenesis. Speer¹ hypothesized 5 different possibilities for the development of thymic cysts: (1) embryonal remnants of thymopharyngeal ducts, branchial clefts, or thymic tubules; (2) sequestered products of the thymus eventually undergoing pathologic involution; (3) degeneration of Hassall corpuscles; (4) lymphatics, blood vessels, or connective tissue in various stages of thymic development, hyperplasia, or involution; and (5) neoplastic processes in the lymphoreticular system. In recent years, 2 theories that gained the most support include the congenital persistence of thymopharyngeal ducts and the degeneration of Hassall corpuscles.

Thymic cysts tend to be unilocular and thin walled and, on aspiration, contain light amber to dark brown fluid. Several different epithelial cell types, ranging from flattened squamous or cuboidal cells to multilayered stratified squamous epithelium and even to primitive respiratory epithelium, may be found on histologic examination. Also, foreign body giant . . . [Full Text of this Article]

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Arch Otolaryngol Head Neck Surg. 2008;134(10):1113.
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