Foregut cysts in infants and children. Diagnosis and management.

The charts of 15 patients with foregut cysts were reviewed. The lesions were intrathoracic in 14 patients and in the cervical area in one child. The importance of early diagnosis and surgical management is stressed. In untreated infants with foregut cysts, severe progressive and life-threatening airway obstruction may develop. Since the symptoms of this congenital lesion may simulate other more common diseases of the tracheobronchial tree and esophagus, the physician should become familiar with this disease entity so that proper diagnosis and surgical treatment will not be delayed. The study includes symptomatology, methods of diagnosis, pathologic findings and classification of the cysts.