Research Article
Mediastinal Pseudocyst: Varied Presentations and
Management—Experience from a Tertiary Referral Care
Centre in India
Durairaj Segamalai, Abdul Rehman Abdul Jameel, Naveen Kannan, Amudhan Anbalagan,
Benet Duraisamy, Prabhakaran Raju, and Kannan Devy Gounder
Institute of Surgical Gastroenterology, Madras Medical College, Chennai 600003, India
Correspondence should be addressed to Kannan Devy Gounder; malarkan08@gmail.com
Received 22 September 2016; Revised 1 February 2017; Accepted 26 February 2017; Published 14 March 2017
Academic Editor: Richard Charnley
Copyright © 2017 Durairaj Segamalai et al. Tis is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution
License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly
cited.
Pseudocysts are a recognised complication following acute or chronic pancreatitis. Usually located in peripancreatic areas, they
have also been reported to occur in atypical regions like liver, pelvis, spleen, and mediastinum. Mediastinal pseudocysts are a rare
entity and present with myriad of symptoms due to their unique location. Tey are a clinical challenge to diagnose and manage. In
this paper, we describe the clinical and radiological characteristics of mediastinal pseudocysts in 7 of our patients, as well as our
experience in managing these patients along with their clinical outcome.
1. Introduction
Pancreatic pseudocysts are common fndings in patients
with acute or chronic pancreatitis, usually located in peri-
pancreatic areas. Mediastinal pseudocyst is rare and ofen
reported as case reports, exact incidence being unknown
[1]. Pancreatic ductal disruption due to infammatory injury
leads to leakage of amylase rich pancreatic secretions along
the paths of least resistance. Posterior disruptions can lead to
thoracopancreatic fstulae while anterior disruptions produce
pancreatic ascites. Toracopancreatic fstulas are divided into
four types based on the termination site of the fstula: pancre-
aticopleural, mediastinal pseudocyst, pancreaticobronchial,
and pancreaticopericardial. Mediastinal pseudocyst by way
of its unique location can present with myriad symptoms
like dysphagia, chest pain, or palpitations and in extreme
cases pericardial efusion, tamponade, and respiratory dis-
tress [2]. It can be a diagnostic and therapeutic challenge.
High index of suspicion is ofen needed in diagnosing this
entity. Pancreatic ductal morphology and its communication
with the pseudocyst hold the key for successful manage-
ment. We present our experience in managing mediastinal
pseudocysts.
2. Materials and Methods
Tis study is a retrospective analysis of patients diagnosed
to have mediastinal pseudocyst between Jan 2010 and March
2016 at our Institute. Our Institute is a high volume tertiary
referral care centre in India, where more than 200 pan-
creatic surgeries are performed annually for various benign
and malignant disorders. We reviewed clinical records and
imaging database and were able to identify 7 patients with
mediastinal pseudocyst. Torough analysis regarding their
clinical symptomatology, etiology of pancreatitis, radiological
features, supplementary investigations, management strategy,
and their follow-up was done. Basic laboratory investigation
including serum amylase, lipase, and c-reactive protein was
done. All patients underwent oesophagogastroduodenoscopy
(OGD), ultrasound (USG) with portal Doppler, contrast
enhanced computed tomography (CT) scan of abdomen and
chest, and other investigations like echocardiogram, barium
swallow, and magnetic resonance cholangiopancreatography
(MRCP) as required. Patient presenting with ascites or
pleural efusion underwent aspiration and biochemical fuid
analysis. Patients who had dysphagia were graded as per
dysphagia score of Knyrim et al. [3]; grade 0 denoted the
Hindawi
HPB Surgery
Volume 2017, Article ID 5247626, 7 pages
https://doi.org/10.1155/2017/5247626