A cyst is a closed sac having a distinct membrane and division on the nearby tissue. They may contain air, fluids, or semi-solid material. A collection of pus is called an abscess, not a cyst. Once formed, the cyst could go away by itself or will have to be removed using surgery.

Locations

• Arachnoid cyst (between the surface of the brain and the cranial base or on the arachnoid membrane)
• Baker's Cyst (behind the knee joint)
• Bartholin's cyst
• Breast cyst
• Chalazion cyst (eyelid)
• Cysticercal cyst (the larval stage of Taenia sp.)
• Dentigerous Cyst (associated with the crowns of non-erupted teeth)
• Dermoid cyst (ovaries, testes, many other locations from head to tailbone)
• Epididymal Cyst (found in the vessels attached to the testes)
• Ganglion cyst (hand/foot joints and tendons)
• Glial Cyst (in the brain)
• Gartner's duct cyst (vaginal or vulvar cyst of embryological origin)
• Hydatid cyst (larval stage of Echinococcus granulosus (tapeworm))
• Keratocyst (in the jaws, these can appear solitary or associated with the Gorlin-Goltz or Nevoid basal cell carcinoma syndrome. The latest World Health Organization classification considers Keratocysts as tumors rather than cysts)
• Liver cystic disease
• Meibomian cyst (eyelid)
• Nabothian cyst (cervix)
• Ovarian cyst (ovaries, functional and pathological)
• Paratubal cyst (fallopian tube)
• Pilonidal cyst (skin infection near tailbone)
• Renal cyst (kidneys)
• Polycystic ovary syndrome
• Radicular cyst (associated with the roots of non-vital teeth)
• Sebaceous cyst (sac below skin)
• Tarlov cyst (spine)
• Vocal fold cyst

Cystic fibrosis

Benign vs malignant

• Dermoid cyst
• Keratocyst

Related structures

A syrinx in the spinal cord or brainstem is sometimes inaccurately referred to as a cyst.

References

External links

• "Cyst Symptoms and Causes" by Melissa Conrad Stöppler, MD and William C. Shiel, Jr., MD, FACP, FACR.