Breath-holding—like spells in an infant: An unusual presentation of lingual thyroglossal duct cyst

Lingual thyroglossal duct cyst in newborns: Previously misdiagnosed as laryngomalacia

“…He was later diagnosed as LTDC at the level of hyoid at the base of the tongue by laryngeal CT [3]. We have involved the LTDC [4] when we analysis the newborns laryngomalacia's etiological factor, it is rare to see the similar report, mostly is on what we have discussed above, the clinical manifestations in newborns (air passage) are different from those of children and adults (cervical masses), in some extreme cases, sudden death may even occur in the former [6][7][8]. Then why are newborns with LTDC mainly manifested by air passage obstruction while children and adults with LTDC are characterized by cervical masses instead of obvious dyspnea?…”

Long-Term Outcome of Endoscopic Radiofrequency Ablation for Ingrowth Thyroglossal Duct Cyst

“…Although Urao et al [12], in 1996, first proposed transoral marsupialization for children with ingrowth TGDC, marsupialization has not proven useful for ingrowth TGDCs because the cyst quickly recurs from the cyst wall remnant due of its deep cystic location [13,14]. Some authors [11,15,16] have described cases of ingrowth TGDC that were successfully treated using marsupialization, but these examples actually involved auxillary methods to remove the lesion. These findings suggest a preference for complete excision or ablation of the deep cystic wall over marsupialization.…”

Sudden infant death: Lingual thyroglossal duct cyst versus environmental factors

“…The decedent had no significant pathological abnormalities apart from the thyroglossal duct cyst. It is easy to conclude therefore that the cause of death was the lingual mass, and many reports have demonstrated that the location of such masses can cause not only various respiratory problems but also infant death [5][6][7][8][9]. From the autopsy findings, the cyst, which was close to the epiglottis, seemed to be large enough to have caused fatal asphyxia as a result of airway occlusion.…”

“…Large cysts on the base of the tongue might cause severe airway obstruction by a mass effect on the hypopharynx and by displacing the epiglottis [5]. This mechanism has been described as a ball valve effect between the cyst and laryngeal inlet [6,7]. The location of these cysts often contributes not only to the development of respiratory symptoms such as stridor, dyspnea, raspy respiration and periodic cyanosis [4,5,7], but it can also cause infant death [5][6][7][8][9].…”

“…This mechanism has been described as a ball valve effect between the cyst and laryngeal inlet [6,7]. The location of these cysts often contributes not only to the development of respiratory symptoms such as stridor, dyspnea, raspy respiration and periodic cyanosis [4,5,7], but it can also cause infant death [5][6][7][8][9]. Two previous reports have documented sudden and unexpected infant deaths in which autopsy revealed the cause of death as thyroglossal duct cysts [6,8].…”