Pancreatic Cyst in Infancy: Recovery after Marsupialization

Pancreatic cyst is a very rare condition: Aldis, quoted by Aird (1957), found only 2 in 75,000 patients. Most cysts have occurred in adult females. The condition is exceedingly rare in childhood and infancy. Miles (1959), in a review of the literature, found only eight cases in infants under 2 years of age, and, of these, cysts were demonstrated at birth in only two, and none was operated upon in the neonatal period. His own case was that of a full-term female baby who was operated upon when 8 days old. There had been frequent regurgitation of the baby's feeds with increasing abdominal distension. Examination of the abdomen and chest by x rays, intravenous pyelogram, barium meal, and barium enema showed a homogeneous shadow over most of the abdomen, with upward and medial displacement of the stomach and downward displacement of the large and small intestines. Laparotomy revealed a large thin-walled multilocular cyst arising from the head and body of the pancreas: the cyst was excised and the baby made a satisfactory recovery.