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Updated: Jun 17, 2026
Endoscopic Approach for Colloid Cyst Resection
Published on: May 23, 2025
Balloon catheter assisted excision of benign cervical cyst
Young Sam Yoo1, Hoon Young Woo, Jeong Hwan Choi
1Department of Otolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery, Sanggye Paik Hospital, College of Medicine, Inje University, 761-1 Sanggye-7-dong Nowon-gu, Seoul 139-707, Republic of Korea. entyoo@empal.com
Objectives:
Benign cystic masses that develop in the neck are easily excised with a wide skin incision. However, if the cyst is perforated and the contour of the cyst is not maintained during surgery, complete excision may be difficult. We developed a surgical method that can maintain the contour of a cyst and decrease the wound size with a balloon catheter.
Methods:
Two cases with a branchial cleft cyst (BCC) were removed using this method without recurrence. The surgical technique includes a skin incision above the cyst, and fine dissection to expose the cyst wall. Then a small tap incision was created on the cyst using a #11 blade and a #14 Fr. Foley catheter was inserted through the incision site and the balloon was inflated up to 4 cm(3) using normal saline. The fluid inner content was carefully removed keeping the intracystic balloon inflated. By pulling and releasing the catheter, the cyst was dissected carefully and excised.
Results:
Complete excision of the cyst was performed with the balloon catheter successfully. The final pathological diagnosis was BCC in the two cases.
Conclusions:
The balloon-assisted technique was easy to perform and could be used for the excision of a benign cystic neck mass.
