Infectious Mass (Clinical Significance of Thyroglossus Duct Cyst)

In this toddler there is an extended inflammatory focus on the midline of the neck. The red and protruding clinical finding (redness and tumor) is discolored yellowish in the center and lies near the hyoid. Considering the age of the patient and the site of the mass, it is an infectious thyroglossal duct cyst with abscess; the inflammation hides the typical clinical findings of a thyroglossal duct cyst. The clinical significance of these congenital anomalies is manifold: disconfiguration or cause of carcinophobia; such findings may hide another pathology (differential diagnosis); possible complications such as infection and formation of abscess may occur, and in adulthood cases with carcinoma originating from these anomalies are known.