Skene's duct cysts in female newborns

Abstract

The Skene's duct cyst, which presents as a cystic mass just around the urethral meatus, is a rare congenital abnormality in the female newborn. Following a search of available literature we have been able to find Skene's duct cyst reported in only 10 newborns. Herein we report seven cases of Skene's duct cysts in female neonates that were recorded in a 5-year period (June 1984 through May 1989) among 14,518 female births at the Fatima Hospital. In these cases we found that Skene's duct cysts in the female newborn had characteristic morphological and clinical features helpful for diagnosis without a complete urologic evaluation. Needle aspiration of the cyst content provides diagnostic information as well as therapeutic effect. Treatment consisted of partial excision of the cyst wall and needle aspiration. In the initial two cases we performed partial excision of the cystic wall for the purpose of doing tissue examination and drainage of the cyst, but in the following five cases we carried out only needle aspiration. The results of both were excellent without recurrence.