Congenital cysts and fistulas of the neck

: On the base of literature and their own 123 patients the authors present the frequency, diagnostics and treatment of congenital neck fistulas and cysts. We had 9 congenital fistulas: 6 median and 3 lateral. We treated 114 patients with neck cysts.: 29 median and 85 lateral, from which 50 were at the right side. The disease mainly manifested in 10-19 year-old patients--25 cases and in 30-39 year-old patients--21 cases. We divided the lateral neck cysts according to Bailey's--the most frequent of which were of III type--44.7%, II type--32.94%, IV type 16.58% and I type 5.88%. All patients were radically operated on-that is they had totally enucleated fistula or cyst. In the case of median fistulas or cysts we didn't extirpate the body of the hyoid bone but in the case of duct going to caecal foramen of the tongue, we elevated the hyoid bone and with Storz lupe we prepared the duct to the root of the tongue. We didn't have any recurrence resulting from this kind of treatment. We had a recurrence in one patient (0.81%) with median cyst of the neck which was localised in the lower part of the neck and was connected with thyroid. We reoperated this patient and we had a complete recovery.