Our daughter's branchial cleft abnormality was a fistula tract, with one opening at the base of her neck. Dr. Green actually SHOWED us what he excised--the tract looked like a bloody red nightcrawler worm (I actually thought it would make good fishing bait!). About the width of a pencil around and about 7 inches laid flat. This was connected at the top of her neck to her tonsils, so they had to come out in order to get all the cyst/fistula material out. If it's not all removed, it's possible it can regrow. So our little 16 month old had her tonsils removed and two large incisions on her neck. The one at the base of her neck was 4 stitches and the one further north was 9 stitches. These are ugly, large visible scars and we hope they will fade with time. But as a parent reading about this surgery beforehand, it's best to prepare yourself for the Frankenstein look on your child's neck.
Her recovery was okay. The first night we spent in the hospital so she could be observed for infections or hemotomas, and hydrated intravenously. She went home the next day with antibiotics and Tylenol 3 (with codeine). She hated the T3 so we switched her to regular Tylenol on day 3 and she seemed unaffected. The first night home we woke her up to get the T3 but after that we let her sleep and she did okay.
We are going to get the stitches out in a few days and then plan to be DONE with this ordeal! God bless anyone who has a little one with this condition and I hope you have learned from our story!
