Thyroglossal tract remnants with a cyst in an adult cadaver

Abstract

Although thyroglossal tract remnants are not uncommon in adults, it is still important due to the carcinomatous involvement.We found a case of thyroglossal tract remnants with a cyst formation in a 37-year-old Korean male cadaver during a routinedissection course, whose cause of death was rectal carcinoma. A left-deviated thyroglossal duct cyst was located thyrohyoidlevel and thyroglossal tract remnants connected below and above, behind the hyoid bone, the cyst. In addition, we examinedthe possible involvement of carcinoma in thyroglossal duct cyst histopathologically, but found it a simple cyst containingrespiratory epithelium and thyroid follicles. These results indicated that clinicians should keep in mind the possibility ofcarinomatous change with thyroglossal duct cyst in adult patients over fourth decades, although the prevalence is very low.