Unusual diagnosis of a solitary thyroid nodule in the paediatric population: cervical thymic cyst

Abstract

SUMMARYWe present a case of an 8-year-old girl with a painless swelling in her neck. An ultrasonogram revealed a cystic nodule with internal echoes, lying posterior to right lobe of thyroid, and MRI confirmed it. Thyroid scintigraphy did not show any uptake in the swelling. Intraoperatively, the lesion was densely adherent to the thyroid gland, hence a hemithyroidectomy was performed. Histopathology showed it to be an ectopic cervical thymic cyst with parathyroid tissue. BACKGROUND