Gigantic parotid retention cyst

Cysts of the parotid gland are rare. Recently, in a series of 183 surgical parotid gland specimens, 16 parotid cysts, of which seven were true parotid cysts and nine were cystic neoplasms, were reported.¹ Of the seven true cysts, only one was a retention cyst and the rest were epidermoid and lymphoepithelial cysts. In another series of 23 reported cases, five cysts were of the retention type.² Apart from these two reported series, there are only sporadic case reports of parotid retention cysts.^3–5 Excellent discussions of the differential diagnosis of cystic lesions of the parotid gland has been presented in the literature.^1,2,6Analysis of the sizes of all reported cases of parotid cysts revealed that none were larger than 3.5 cm in diameter. We report a case of a parotid retention cyst of a gigantic proportion, 10 cm in diameter. To the best of our knowledge, this is the largest retention cyst of the parotid gland reported.