Gigantic parotid retention cyst

Cysts of the parotid gland are rare. Recently, in a series of 183 surgical parotid gland specimens, 16 parotid cysts, of which seven were true parotid cysts and nine were cystic neoplasms, were reported. 1 Of the seven true cysts, only one was a retention cyst and the rest were epidermoid and lymphoepithelial cysts. In another series of 23 reported cases, five cysts were of the retention type. 2 Apart from these two reported series, there are only sporadic case reports of parotid retention cysts. 3–5 Excellent discussions of the differential diagnosis of cystic lesions of the parotid gland has been presented in the literature. 1,2,6 Analysis of the sizes of all reported cases of parotid cysts revealed that none were larger than 3.5 cm in diameter. We report a case of a parotid retention cyst of a gigantic proportion, 10 cm in diameter. To the best of our knowledge, this is the largest retention cyst of the parotid gland reported.