Case Report
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2024. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Clin Cases. May 6, 2024; 12(13): 2231-2236
Published online May 6, 2024. doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v12.i13.2231
Intra-thyroid esophageal duplication cyst: A case report
Hong-Guo Lin, Ming Liu, Xue-Yang Huang, Da-Sheng Liu
Hong-Guo Lin, Ming Liu, Xue-Yang Huang, Da-Sheng Liu, Department of Vascular Thyroid Surgery, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine, Guangzhou 510006, Guangdong Province, China
Author contributions: Lin HG reviewed the literature and wrote the manuscript; Liu M and Huang XY perfected the data collection; Liu DS was the main provider of this case and revised the manuscript and directed the writing of the article. All authors gave final approval for the version to be submitted.
Supported by The Research Project of Guangzhou Science and Technology Plan, No. 2024A03J0042.
Informed consent statement: All study participants, or their legal guardian, provided informed written consent prior to study enrollment.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest to disclose.
CARE Checklist (2016) statement: The authors have read the CARE Checklist (2016), and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the CARE Checklist (2016).
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Da-Sheng Liu, MD, Doctor, Department of Vascular Thyroid Surgery, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine, No. 55 Neihuan West Road, Panyu District, Guangzhou 510006, Guangdong Province, China. 804232372@qq.com
Received: January 28, 2024
Revised: March 9, 2024
Accepted: March 29, 2024
Published online: May 6, 2024
Abstract
BACKGROUND

Esophageal cysts are relatively rare in clinical practice, with most of the literature comprising case reports. Esophageal cysts protruding into the thyroid gland are easily misdiagnosed as thyroid tumors. No such cases have been reported so far.

CASE SUMMARY

This article reports the case of a 31-year-old adult male diagnosed with thyroid nodules before admission. The patient underwent left thyroidectomy and isthmusectomy. During the surgery, esophageal cysts were identified in the esophageal muscle and thyroid glands. The pathology results confirmed a nodular goiter combined with esophageal cysts. Postoperatively, the patient developed a neck infection and underwent another operation and broad-spectrum antibiotic treatment for recovery.

CONCLUSION

We report the first clinical case of an esophageal cyst located within the thyroid gland that was successfully treated surgically. Esophageal cyst located within the thyroid gland cause difficulties in diagnosis. In the present study, the contents of the esophageal cysts were calcified foci, and a small amount of fluid mixture, which were easily misdiagnosed as thyroid nodules and misled the surgical methods.

Keywords: Esophageal cysts, Thyroid, Diagnosed, Surgery, Case report

Core Tip: We reported on a very special patient. The diagnosis of a nodular goiter combined with esophageal cysts was made by his symptoms, physical examination, laboratory tests and intraoperative frozen pathological examination. Esophageal cysts embedded in the thyroid gland are rare in clinical practice and can cause difficulties in diagnosis. The patient was successfully treated surgically.