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.