Cyst

Updated on March 12, 2011
J.J. asks from North Little Rock, AR
9 answers

My 15 month old daughter formed a knot on the outer portion of her left eye at the edge of her eyebrow when she was about 4 months old. My brother-in-law is a family physician and I immediately took her to see him when I noticed the knot. He thought it was a lacrimal gland issue and thought it would go away. Obviously it hasn't gone away and has gotten bigger as she's gotten older. Some days it seems bigger than others. I've had her pediatrician watching it at every wellness visit. At her 12 month checkup the doctor said it felt like it had grown a little and suggested we see an eye doctor. The eye doctor was a wasted trip, he told us to go see a specialist at Children's Hospital. The eye doctor thought it was a cyst, which is what I've thought from the beginning. He didn't think it was cancer b/c it doesn't hurt my daughter when you touch the knot. My brother-in-law gave me an article from one of his medical journals about a month ago about dermoid cysts. They had a picture of a baby with a knot on her eye in the same spot as my daughter. I'm assuming that's what it could be. We take my daughter to the specialist in July. Does anyone have any experience with anything like this? I'm just so worried. I don't want anything to happen to my daughter or her vision.

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So What Happened?

Sorry it took so long for me to update. I took my daughter to an eye specialist at Arkansas Childrens Hospital and they told me immediately that it was definitely a dermoid cyst. They said that sometimes they are worried about the cyst being attached to nerves or vessels. With where her cyst was positioned they weren't worried about that on her. The doctor said that if they were worried about thy they would perform an MRI.
The options were to either leave the cyst alone until she was older and then decide if we wanted to have the cyst removed. The doctor said that eventually if left untreated the cyst could get large enough to be in the way of her vision. The second option was to do the surgery to remove the cyst whenever we were ready. I of course was scared to death of the surgery with my daughter being so young. I was also worried about waiting until my daughter got older because I was afraid of kids being mean and making fun of her as the cyst got bigger.
I decided to go ahead and have them do surgery. My daughter was almost 18 months when she had the surgery. The surgery went perfect!!!! She had no problems from surgery and had a little bruising and swelling which was expected. The doctor said there was the slight risk of nerve damage while doing the surgery. She had none! They said her cyst was a text book dermoid cyst. She was back to her normal self in a couple of days. I also forgot to mention that one of the risks that the doctor informed me of was that if the cyst was left untreated, there was a risk of the cat rupturing which was dangerous and also ran the risk of causing a very bad eye infection!! Needless to say I wanted it gone! I hope this helps anyone that is going through the same thing. Good luck!

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T.D.

answers from Lafayette on

My son had this around kindergarden. It disappeared after a year or two. You can remove it if it gets too big.

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L.C.

answers from Lafayette on

Just a few months ago our eye doctor noticed a growth on my 10 year olds eye. We took her to an eye specialist, and he said it was a lipodermoid cyst. She was born with it, we just never noticed it before. He said as long as it's not interferring with her vision, there's no need to have it removed. We just have to watch it, in case it grows or becomes painful.

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C.S.

answers from Boca Raton on

I noticed a soft bump on my two year old daughter's eyebrow during a bath, pushed on it and she didn't notice. I thought at that time it could be a cyst of some sort, or she bumped her head at preschool. As you said, it seems to be more noticble at different times. Like today I noticed it (sometimes I forget it's even there), so I know it's a cyst of some sort. I am not RUNNING to the doctor like I normally would, only because it doesn't hurt her & and I'm reading stuff online. Please update yoyur situation. Thanks

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C.M.

answers from Baton Rouge on

My daughter had a cyst on the eyebrow just like your explaining. We had it removed by Dr. Hill at Children's Hospital. The reason he wanted it removed was because it can continue to grow and reshape the eyeball. She has no visible scare now. If you are seeing the same doctor, he was wonderful and Chirdren's Hospital has great! As I'm sure you know. Good luck in your with your daughter.

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S.B.

answers from Huntsville on

Our daughter was born with the same thing. It was a dermoid cyst. Her pediatrician sent her to a plastic surgeon and he took care of it when she was 5 months old. He made his cut in the crease of her eyelid and used glue to close the cut. She is almost 9 years old now and there is barely a scar.

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L.S.

answers from New Orleans on

My brother had the same thing when he was a child. His continued to grow and he had to have surgery to remove it before he was 2. He is 31 now and had no problems when it reoccuring, he doesn't even have a scar.

We were told it was quite common and that alot of times it is leftover fetal tissue that has continued to grow.

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H.B.

answers from Oklahoma City on

This may sound strange, but I myself had a cyst like that. It attached itself to my eyebrow bone. It didn't hurt, but kept getting bigger and bigger. It is scary that it is your little one though. I got mine when I was 17. I had surgery to remove it. They made 2 very small incisions that you can't even tell are there now. I have not had any others since then. Good Luck!

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K.H.

answers from Oklahoma City on

My son had one of these. We had it removed when he was 5. His was a pseudocyst that had developed within the frontal suture (where two of your skull bones join). We went to Dr. Love. I would recommend him. Before he got in there, he thought it was just under the eyebrow, but found out it was embedded in the suture. The risks were nerve damage effecting movement of the brow, and infection. It was 8 years ago so there may have been other risks that did not stand out to us. He had no problems other than coming off of anesthesia. His eyebrow has now covered what scar was there. Good Luck!

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A.R.

answers from Tulsa on

My daughter, just turned 5 last week, also had a dermoid cyst. She had surgery when she was 18 mths old on her right eye for Duane's Sydnrome. About a year later we noticed that the same eye, her right eye, was looking very puffy and droopy. We went back to her regular eye Dr. who at first thought it was allergies. After several months of eye drops we saw no improvement. Our Pediatric Opthamologist who is wonderful referred us on to an Oculoplastics Specialist in Tulsa. He took one look at her and told us it was a dermoid cyst and it is normal for the cyst to become appareant around 2-3 years old.
He said that the cyst consists of a pocket of cells that when she was developing in the womb should have gone elsewhere; i.e. hair follicles, skin, etc. For whatever reason this sometimes occurs and once it is removed there are no further complications. She had surgery again on her right eye 4 days before Xmas last year. He is an amazing surgeon - this surgery had to be done externally, whereas her Duane's Syndrome surgery was all done internally. She has the tiniest scar on the crease of her eyelid. If you didn't know she had surgery you would never even know it was there! They sent the cyst to the lab and as expected it was nothing - the Dr. was right!
It was such a relief to have it taken care of - the cyst was so noticeable that adults and children both would ask me everytime we were out what was wrong with her eye. Today she has two beautiful brown eyes - they were always beautiful to me!
If you have any questions please feel free to ask - I've been on both sides of the fence with health issues with our daughter. This was minor to some of the other things she went through - Oh yeah, her vision is perfect - no complications!
Good luck!

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