The outcomes of infantile vallecular cyst post CO₂ laser treatment

Vallecular cyst is not a common disease of neonate and infant. However, it may cause severe airway obstruction and even death. Its clinical symptoms are similar to laryngomalacia, including stridor, suprasternal retraction, substernal retraction, feeding difficulties, vomiting, failure to thrive, feeding choking and desaturation. This study is aimed to evaluate the surgical outcomes of infantile vallecular cyst post CO₂ laser treatment and to explore the appropriate time point of surgery for infantile vallecular cyst.

In a retrospective review, thirty three patients diagnosed as vellecular cyst were enrolled in this study. All the patients received awake fiberoptic videobronchoscopic examination in order to prove the diagnosis. Pre-operative and post-operative eight symptom items were both recorded for comparison of the surgical outcomes. The age of diagnosis, gender, operation, body weight at surgery, co-morbidities, dates of postoperative endotracheal intubation, ICU stays and admission days were all recorded for analysis.

Total 33 cases of vallecular cyst were diagnosed by fiberoptic videobrochoscopy at our department. Most infants were diagnosed at 2-3 months-old. Stridor was the most common pre-operative symptom (100%). Additionally, feeding choking was the most common post-operative one (29.41%). Two patients (6.06%) with newly onset postoperative feeding choking recovered spontaneously within 2 weeks. Failure to thrive got worse as age increased before the operation. Eighty-eight percent of patients had good or excellent improvement of symptoms after surgery. There was neither recurrence nor surgical complication in our study.

Vallecular cyst often combined with laryngomalacia. Different from laryngomalacia, it had excellent outcomes after CO₂ laser treatment. Failure to thrive got worse if delay diagnosis. Therefore, if definite diagnosis is made, early laser excision of cyst is a good method and the surgical outcomes are excellent.