Isolated lesions of the suprasternal notch in pediatric patients.

Background: Palpable masses of the head and neck are a common indication for imaging in the pediatric population. Midline lesions of the infrahyoid neck, particularly lesions isolated to the suprasternal notch, are not well studied.

Objective: To delineate the histopathological and imaging spectrum of masses that occur within and isolated to the suprasternal notch.

Materials And Methods: A retrospective study was performed to identify patients with an isolated lesion of the suprasternal notch that had available pathological diagnoses. Available imaging was reviewed and characterized by fellowship-trained pediatric radiologists and compared by descriptive statistics to the final pathological diagnoses.

Results: Eighteen masses isolated to the suprasternal notch with available pathological diagnoses were identified. Of these, congenital epithelial inclusion cysts were diagnosed in 14 patients (77.8%) with dermoid cysts comprising 11 of those (61.1%) and epidermoid cysts accounting for 3 (16.7%). The most common imaging appearance was a cystic or pseudosolid appearance without vascularity.

Conclusions: Isolated resected lesions of the suprasternal notch in pediatric patients are most frequently dermoid/epidermoid cysts, with a differential diagnosis including other less common entities.