Ectopic intrathyroidal thymus diagnosed as a solid thyroid lesion: case report and review of the literature.

The authors report a case of a 6-year-old boy in whom aberrant thymic tissue was misdiagnosed as an intrathyroidal solid lesion. The patient underwent hemithyroidectomy and did well. Because cervical ectopic thymus rarely produces symptoms, the true incidence in children is unclear. Surgeons need to consider this rare entity, not to mistake it as a thyroid neoplasm, and not to perform extensive thyroid resection.