Complete surgical resection of a thymic cyst located in the middle mediastinum with extension into the carina through a neck incision: A case report study

Introduction and significance: Thymic cysts are rare, located in the middle mediastinum, and are often asymptomatic and discovered incidentally. When they are symptomatic, the symptoms are often due to the effect of the mass, and complete surgical excision is preferred to avoid the risk of complications following their persistence. Case presentation: We present a case of a patient who had recurrent dyspnea and was later diagnosed with a cystic formation in the middle mediastinum by radiological investigations and successfully treated through a neck incision and completely resected. Clinical discussion: Many physicians fail to include these cysts in the differential diagnosis of cystic lesions in the middle mediastinum, thus missing the opportunity to successfully manage these benign formations. Conclusion: The neck incision is considered suitable and has less surgical trauma and less injury than the previously used transthoracic surgical approaches and therefore may be used in the future for the resection of middle mediastinum lesions in general.