We describe two cases of degenerative intraspinal cyst of the cervical spine that caused a gradually progressive myelopathy. One case had a cyst that arose from the facet joint and the other case had a cyst that formed in the ligamentum flavum. The symptoms improved immediately after posterior decompression by cystectomy with laminoplasty.

BACKGROUND Primary adenocarcinoma of thymus is extremely rare. CASE PRESENTATION This is a case of primary adenocarcinoma with intestinal differentiation and focal mucin production in the thymus. Thymic cyst was associated with this tumor. Intestinal differentiation was confirmed by immunohistochemical stain with positivity for CDX-2, CK20, villin, MOC31 and focal positivity of CK7. Array com...

The thymus is a gland originating from the epithelium, which forms in the third portion of the pharynx during the tissue matching that takes place in the sixth week of fetal life. In the eighth week of fetal life there is a migration of the thymus from the cervical region towards the caudal and medial region to its final location at the upper mediastinum. Failure of this migration will cause ab...

Esophageal duplication cyst is a rare congenital anomaly resulting from a foregut budding error during the fourth to sixth week of embryonic development. Cervical esophageal duplication cysts are very rare and may cause respiratory distress in infancy. A full-term newborn girl who was born by normal delivery was transferred to our hospital because of swelling of the right anterior neck since bi...

PURPOSE Extensive extirpation of cervico-mediastinal adipose tissue increases the chance of removing ectopic thymic tissues, thus potentially improving the prognosis of myasthenia gravis after thymectomy. We sought to increase efficacy and safety of transsternal maximal thymectomy (TSMT). MATERIALS AND METHODS Twenty four patients who underwent TSMT from July 2006 to June 2007 were retrospect...