Cervical teratoma in Nigeria children

Cervical teratomas are uncommon tumours. Over an eight-year period, four cases of cervical teratomas were seen in children at the University Teaching Hospital, Ile-Ife, Nigeria. The children ranged in age from two weeks to nine years. In two patients the tumours were noticed at birth but in only one was it symptomatic to be the cause of hospitalization at the age of two weeks. The other two had the tumours for three and six years respectively and presented because of cosmetic embarrassment. All the tumours were easily resected at surgery and two showed an anatomical relationship to the thyroid gland. The post-operative course was uneventful in the four patients. The histopathology of the tumours have shown tissues from the three germ layers with neurological elements predominating in two and thyroid tissue present in the other two. Over a follow-up period varying from one to four years none of the children have demonstrated any abnormality of thyroid functions.