Voluminous oesophageal bronchogenic cyst treated with thoracoscopic approach.

AIM: Bronchogenic cysts are congenital lesions deriving from the primitive foregut, and are usually located in close relation to tracheobronchial tree or oesophagus. We report a case of an oesophageal bronchogenic cyst appearing at preoperative examinations as a benign fibromuscular tumour (leiomyoma).

CASE REPORT: A 62 years old male patient in good general conditions, was admitted to our Institution because of moderate dysphagia and upper post-prandial abdominal pain. Conventional imaging, endoscopy and echo endoscopy detected a parietal oesophageal wall mass looking like a solid formation, determining extrinsic compression and narrowing of the lumen.

RESULTS

The mass has been radically removed with thoracoscopic approach. Postoperative stay was uneventful and the patient was discharged three days after the operation. At histological examination the mass appeared as a cystic formation with fibromuscular wall and ciliated epithelium (so-called disembriogenetic bronchogenic cyst).

CONCLUSION

The case we have reported describes a very unusual case of a voluminous symptomatic intramural oesophageal disembriogenetic cyst whose characteristics had not been defined at preoperative examinations. Surgical removal of the mass has been achieved with a minimally invasive approach.