A ten-year experience of thyroglossal duct cyst surgery in children

We discuss a 10-year experience of all the thyroglossal duct cysts (TGDC) removed at our institution, assessing whether management was appropriate and to compare our outcomes and success rate with current literature. We performed a retrospective review of TGDC surgery at our institution from 2000 to 2010. During the study period, 93 children were identified as having had a TGDC excision at an average age of 6.1 (1.1-15.3) years. Seventeen cases (18 %) were found to have not had their hyoid bone removed and of these 10 (59 %) were proven on histology to be non-TGDC. A total of 19 cases were confirmed TGDC on histology but received a non-Sistrunk's procedure and 12 (63 %) of those recurred requiring a more definitive procedure (i.e. Sistrunks). Of the 76 (82 %) that did have their hyoid bone removed 13 (17 %) suffered complications of which 3 were recurrences (3.9 %), which is comparable to the literature (3-5 %). Of the complications that occurred 11 out of 13 (85 %) were infected cases at or around the time of procedure. Our experience, being the largest described in the United Kingdom supports the use of Sistrunk's procedure with recurrence rates comparable to that within the literature.