USA: Sclerotherapy is a safe and effective option for benign cystic lesions of the head and neck, finds a recent study in the journal Otolaryngology- Head Neck Surgery.
Previous studies have shown well established role of sclerotherapy for vascular lesions of the head and neck. However, there is a lack of clarity on the efficacy of sclerotherapy for benign cystic lesions of the head and neck. Guy Talmor, Department of Otolaryngology–Head and Neck Surgery, Rutgers–New Jersey Medical School, Newark, New Jersey, USA, and colleagues therefore aimed to determine the efficacy and safety of sclerotherapy for benign cystic lesions of the head and neck.
For the purpose, the researchers followed the PRISMA guidelines (Preferred Reporting Systems for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analyses. The review included studies of patients with benign head and neck cystic masses treated primarily with sclerotherapy. A total of 474 were included consisting of 474 cases of sclerotherapy.
Agents comprised OK-432, ethanol, doxycycline, tetracycline, and bleomycin.
Key findings of the study include:
Lesions in the analysis were ranula, thyroglossal duct cyst, branchial cleft cyst, benign lymphoepithelial cyst, parotid cyst, thoracic duct cyst, and unspecified lateral neck cyst.
A total of 287 patients (60.5%) had a complete response; 132 (27.9%) had a partial response; and 55 (11.6%) had no response.
OK-432 was the most widely utilized agent, with a higher rate of complete response than that of ethanol (62.0% vs 39.4%).
Fifty-three cases (11.2%) required further surgical management.
One case of laryngeal edema was reported and managed nonoperatively.
"Sclerotherapy appears to be a safe and efficacious option for benign cystic lesions if malignancy is reliably excluded," wrote the authors. "Efficacy rates are comparable to those of sclerotherapy for vascular malformations. The rate of serious complications is low, with 1 incident of airway edema reported in the literature."
Reference:
The study titled, "Sclerotherapy for Benign Cystic Lesions of the Head and Neck: Systematic Review of 474 Cases," is published in the journal Otolaryngology- Head Neck Surgery.
DOI: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/01945998211000448