Endoscope-assisted second branchial cleft cyst resection via an incision along skin line on lateral neck

The aim of the study is to report the feasibility of endoscope-assisted second branchial cleft cyst resection via a small incision along the skin line on the lateral neck. In total, 41 patients from the Department of Otolaryngology, Foshan Hospital of Yat-sen University were randomly assigned to conventional (20 patients) or endoscope-assisted (21 patients) second branchial cleft cyst resection. The patient clinical characteristics, operation time, operative bleeding volume, postoperative complications, and subjective satisfaction with the incision scar (measured using a visual analog scale) were compared between the groups. All 41 s branchial cleft cyst resections were successfully performed, and the wounds healed uneventfully. The bleeding volume (6.3 ± 2.5 ml) and incision length (2.7 ± 0.3 cm) differed between the groups ( P