ABSTRACT

Lymphoepithelial cysts of the pancreas are extremely rare, benign, nonneoplastic cysts. Most of the cases are asymptomatic and diagnosed during a work-up for other diseases. Differential di-agnosis of lymphoepithelial cyst of the pancreas may include pseudocyst or cystic neoplasm of the pancreas such as mucinous cystic neoplasm and intraductal papillary mucinous neoplasm. Lymphoepithelial cyst of the pancreas has various imaging presentations, making the differential diagnosis and treatment strategy difficult. Fine-needle aspiration biopsy should be considered but diagnosis is poor. Herein we report a 54-year old man who was admitted with a complaint of a cystic mass of the pancreatic head discovered incidentally in a computed tomography scan. Due to the lack of preoperative malign or benign differantial diagnosis of mass, the patient underwent a explorative laparatomy. The cystic mass was resected from the pancreatic head by pancreatico-duodenectomy. The final pathology was compatible with lymphoepithelial cyst of pancreas.

Keywords: pancreas, differential diagnosis, lymphoepithelial cyst