Mediastinal Cysts: A Clinicopathologic Study of Twenty Cases

¹ Department of Pathology and Surgery, Laboratory of Surgical Pathology, Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons

Twenty cases of primary mediastinal cysts have been reviewed. The bronchogenous variety was most common and the thymic cyst the least common. All the gastric cysts were encountered in children under one year of age. Less than 50 per cent of all the patients in this study were symptomatic, most cases being discovered on routine chest x-ray examination. Clinical and/or radiologic findings were not specific either for the group of mediastinal cysts as a whole or for a specific variety of cysts. However, thymic and pericardial cysts were located in the anterior mediastinum while gastric, bronchogenous and undesignated cysts tended to be found in the posterior compartment. The adequate therapy for all the cysts was surgical extirpation. In none of the cases was there any evidence of malignant degeneration.