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Management of tailgut cysts in a single institute in Taiwan

Background: Tailgut cysts are rare congenital lesions that are generally located in the retrorectal regions. We performed a cases series in Taiwan to compare with others. Materials and Methods: The demographics, clinical presentation, surgical management, pathological features, and long-term outcome of 14 patients of tailgut cysts diagnosed at Taipei Veterans General Hospital from 1989 to 2018 were reviewed. Results: In this series, 11 patients (78.6%) were female with the mean age of 46.7 (18–75) years. The majority of cases (83.3%) were symptomatic with variable manifestations. All patients received radiological examination and/or endoscopy. One case underwent biopsy before the therapy. Surgical methods included Kraske, transanal, abdominal, and combined approaches. Tailgut cysts were benign in ten patients (71.4%) and malignancy included mixed adenoneuroendocrine carcinoma, carcinoid tumor, and borderline mucinous tumor. No long-term adverse effect was reported. There was no recurrence of benign tailgut cysts during the median follow-up of 3 years. Conclusion: Tailgut cysts are uncommon and diagnosed predominantly in the middle-aged female. They can present with variable clinical manifestations, and diagnosis relies on image study. A routine preoperative biopsy is not indicated as it can be uninformative or false negative. Complete surgical excision is recommended even in asymptomatic cases for definite diagnosis and the possibility of malignant transformation. A variety of surgical approaches can achieve complete surgical removal and avoid recurrence if being planned ahead by image carefully.