%0 Journal Article
%T Respiratory difficulty caused by an ectopic brain tissue mass in the neck of a two-month-old baby: a case report
%A Mohammed J Aboud
%J Journal of Medical Case Reports
%D 2011
%I BioMed Central
%R 10.1186/1752-1947-5-220
%X We report a case of rare pure cystic heterotopic brain tissue in a two-month-old Caucasian baby girl that presented as a large cystic neck mass and was confused with a cystic hygroma. Her mother reported a progressive increase in the size of this swelling and mild respiratory difficulty when the girl was sleeping. A computed tomography scan of the brain and neck showed a large heterogeneous mass extending from the base of the skull to the left submandibular region; a cystic component was also noted. Our patient under went total excision of the cystic mass and prevention of airway obstruction by a left submandibular approach. The final gross pathology diagnosis was heterotopic brain tissue.Pure cystic neck heterotopic brain tissue lesions are very uncommon, and a preoperative diagnosis of this lesion is difficult. Brain heterotopia is a rare, benign condition that should be considered in the differential diagnosis of the neonatal head and neck mass.Neuroglial heterotopia, heterotopic brain tissue, or differentiated neural tissue outside the cranial vault is uncommon, and these anomalies most commonly occur in the nasal cavity [1,2]. In rare instances, neuroglial heterotopia in the neck has been reported [3-5]. Previous reports of these cases have shown only computed tomography (CT) images of neuroglial heterotopia presenting as a low-attenuation mass with some area of focal cystic formation [3-6]. The most common location of heterotopic brain tissue is in the nasal region [7,8]. However, heterotopic brain tissue has also less commonly been reported to occur in other sites, such as the pharynx, lung, orbits, palate, tongue, cheek, lip, and neck [9]. To the best of our knowledge, only five or six cases of heterotopic brain tissue with a cystic pattern occurring in the neck have been reported [9-11]. We report a case of uncommon pure cystic heterotopic brain tissue in a two-month-old baby girl that presented as a large cystic neck mass and was confused with a cystic hyg
%U http://www.jmedicalcasereports.com/content/5/1/220