Minimally Invasive Surgery In Treatment Of Branchial Cleft Cysts

Aim: To assess minimally invasive surgery (MIS) as a new treatment for branchial cleftcyst (BCC)s.Background. Branchial cleft cyst (BCC) is a congenital epithelial cyst, which arisesfrom the failure of obliteration of the branchial cleft in embryonic development. It is atype of birth defect and belongs to branchial anomalies. According to their origins,BCCs are divided into four types. The second type of BCCs is the most common type;it typically locates at the anterior and deep to the sternocleidomastoid muscle at thelevel of carotid bifutcation. Removal of branchial cleft cyst (BCC) with surgery causesan obvious scar on the neck which makes aesthetics a problem. As the prefer age ofBCCs is20to40, the oralfacial aesthetics after surgery is a very important issue.There are researches using minimally invasive surgery (MIS) to reduce scars of neck.The article is to assess MIS as a new treatment for BCC.Materials and methods. This article retrospectively studied twenty-six patients whounderwent surgery for second BCC in Jilin University between2007and2009. Withthe authorities of patients, they were divided into two groups. The control group,consisted of eleven patients, operated with the traditional way, and the studied groupwith other fifteen patients chose the new way-MIS to excise the cysts. The medicalhistory, observation files, and all the tests results of patients were documented. MISwas assessed with the method of anesthesia, duration of operation, postoperative pain,size of the incision, and two-year follow up on the recurrence rate of the cyst, the sizeof scar and shape recovery cosmetically.Results. Compared to the traditional way, MIS chooses local anesthetic as primaryanesthetic method. The average duration of operation on two groups was52.0minutesand72.45minutes, and so as the average size of incision was2.17cm and5.59cm.Patients on the studied group complained much less postoperative pain than thecontrol group since the items describe above were much less. In two-year follow-up, norecurrence was found. The average size of scars with MIS was shorter than thetraditional way, which all have obvious visual scars.Conclusion. MIS can be one better way to removing BCCs and well tolerated by thepatient.