Neonatal Lingual Choristoma With Respiratory and Gastric Epithelium

Abstract

Lingual choristomas are rare entities that typically present as benign cystic masses that are lined with a variety of heterotopic epithelia. Lingual choristomas that are lined with respiratory and/or gastric or intestinal mucosa are believed to derive from pluripotential cells of the embryonic foregut. We describe a neonate with a lingual cyst that was lined predominantly by respiratory epithelium and focally by gastric foveolar epithelium, and we review the terminology, etiology, and management of lingual cysts of presumed foregut origin.