ABSTRACT

In a healthy young adult, an anterior neck mass can be derived from large variety of entity, more commonly being branchial cyst, thyroglossal duct cysts or thyroid gland in origin. Cervical extension of anterior mediastinal mass such as teratoma, thymoma or thymic cyst are uncommon but it needs to be taken into account. Differential diagnoses are narrowed down based on a comprehensive information of clinical presentations and sometimes with aids of specific imaging such as conventional chest radiography, ultrasonography and computed tomography. We report a 19-year-old man who was initially managed as an anterior neck abscess with retrosternal extension of the collection into anterior mediastinum, which was later found out to be an infected cervical cystic extension of an anterior mediastinal teratoma. Referral to cardiothoracic team was made and excision of the teratoma was made uneventfully.