With the popularity of color Doppler ultrasound, CT, MRI and other imaging examinations, the term “cyst” has increasingly entered the public health conversation, such as the well-known liver cysts, kidney cysts, ovarian cysts and so on.
When a cyst is detected in the body, most people do not have any symptoms. However, when the word cyst appears in the test report, there are inevitably many doubts: What is a cyst? Why do they grow? Is there any harm? Should we deal with it? Today we will briefly explain “cysts”.
What is a cyst
In layman’s terms, a cyst is a closed “blister”, like a balloon filled with water. The shell of a cyst is a fibrous cyst wall made up of layers of cells with secretory functions, and the cyst cavity is filled with a clear, colorless or yellowish, sterile, protein-rich fluid called cyst fluid. Most of the cysts are formed for unknown reasons, and some of them are caused by parasites, infections, congenital developmental abnormalities and other factors.
Common sites of cysts
Cysts can occur in various tissues throughout the body, including the liver, kidneys, ovaries, pancreas, throat, skin, and tendon sheaths, but the most common are the liver, kidneys, and ovaries. The size of cysts varies widely and can range from a few millimeters to tens of centimeters.
What are the dangers
Small cysts usually have no clinical symptoms and are only found during routine physical examinations without special treatment. The most common ones in clinical practice are liver cysts and kidney cysts, which need active treatment only when they increase in size and cause symptoms, secondary infection, and affect organ function. For example, larger cysts can cause soreness in the liver and kidney area, fullness in the stomach, and distension in the lower abdomen; cysts that grow in critical locations may also compress nerves and ducts, which can also produce certain hazards.
Cysts in some parts of the body have the tendency to become malignant, and are not easily distinguishable from malignant tumors, such as cysts in the pancreas and ovaries. They need to be taken seriously and further examined or followed up regularly to rule out the possibility of malignancy or cystic malignancy, but overall the percentage of malignant cysts is not very high.
What conditions to deal with
The mechanism of cyst formation is still unclear, and taking medicine does not work. The principle of treatment is mainly to remove the cystic fluid and destroy the cyst wall so that it will shrink and not grow again. Methods include: laparoscopic cyst creation and drainage, ultrasound-guided puncture and drainage, sclerotherapy, excision, etc. In general, if the cyst is not too large and the growth site is less likely to be malignant, it does not need to be treated and regular review is sufficient. The following are the common cases that need treatment.
1. Too large in size and special location
Take the most common liver cysts as an example: larger liver cysts may cause compression of large blood vessels and bile ducts in the liver and cause symptoms, then it is necessary to visit a regular medical institution to have the condition evaluated by a hepatobiliary surgeon and propose a treatment plan. For liver cysts larger than 5 cm located on the surface of the liver, they are prone to rupture due to punching or injury and need to be treated. For liver surface cysts smaller than 5 cm, if they do not cause compression symptoms on surrounding organs, they can be observed. If compression symptoms appear, such as epigastric fullness and pain, the decision to treat them will be made on a case-by-case basis.
2.Suspected malignant possibility
If a tumor is suspected to be “cystic” on imaging, or if a cyst appears in an area where cysts rarely occur, or even if the tumor in that area is usually cystic, it is necessary to actively deal with it. For example, “pancreatic cyst” and “plasma pancreatic cancer” are difficult to distinguish by conventional color Doppler ultrasound, so it is necessary to find a specialist to evaluate and further enhance the diagnosis by CT, endoscopic ultrasound aspiration, etc.
3.”Polycystic kidney” or “Polycystic liver”
In general, cysts are single or scattered, while hundreds of “polycystic kidney” or “polycystic liver” are usually seen in autosomal dominant disorders. In this case, the cysts are quite dangerous and the normal liver and kidney tissues are squeezed out, resulting in impaired liver and kidney function. Most often, the kidney function is damaged, and there are many patients with uremia due to polycystic kidney in clinical practice. Surgery is generally not recommended for “polycystic kidney” or “polycystic liver”, but only for the treatment of large cysts causing obvious symptoms, with puncture and fluid extraction or “windowing”, and active protection of The treatment of liver and kidney should be actively protected.
4.Psychological burden is too heavy
Some people are psychologically burdened and find that there is a cyst in their body, so they always have a pimple in their mind and hear that puncture can make the cyst disappear or shrink, so they have to be punctured before they can feel at ease.
So there is usually no need to worry about these cases, and the next time you have a checkup to see if this “old friend” inside your body is still well.