Tracheal diverticula discovered during surgery: a report of 2 cases and literature review

Abstract

To analyze the reasons why tracheal diverticula is easy to be missed or misdiagnosed in the diagnosis and treatment of thyroid tumors, and to strengthen the understanding of the clinical characteristics of the disease. The reasons of the misdiagnosis and missed diagnosis in similar cases were analyzed, and the anatomy, differential diagnosis, and examination methods by reviewing the relevant literature in the past 20 years were further analyzed. At the same time, a retrospective analysis was carried out on two recent clinical cases of tracheal diverticula discovered during surgery. Tracheal diverticula is easily confused with thyroid tumor and may be misdiagnosed for the following reasons: tracheal diverticula is asymptomatic in most patients; symptomatic tracheal diverticula has similar clinical symptoms to thyroid nodules; lack of character in imaging findings. General surgeons should improve their awareness and vigilance of tracheal diverticula. Neck CT should be listed as a routine examination before thyroid-related surgery.

Keywords

• |tracheal diverticula|thyroid tumor|radical thyroidectomy