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The word sac is shortened from the Latin word saccus, which means (what else?) pouch or bag. Is this an English lesson or a medical column? Yes.
Almost any cyst is a true growth, not merely a dilated pouch of normal protoplasm, or a weakness in a tissue that pouches out and fills with stuff. That would be called a hernia or rupture. A ganglion, often called a cyst, is a perfect example of that. It is not a growth, but a herniation of joint lining outside, producing a bump, most often around a wrist.
Cysts develop in many, many organs from cells of the same tissue type. They can arise in skin, likely the most common we are able to see, but also bone, lung, liver, kidney, ovary, etc.
Most cysts are benign. The problems they cause generally are related to pressure they may put on surrounding normal tissue, or bacterial infection that may mysteriously find its way into the encapsulated cheesy material that cysts make and contain. Another problem is people’s dislike of a brainy bulge protruding above the coiffures on their scalps.
Treatment of a cyst most often “concysts” of cutting out the sac/structure. Because some inherent growth potential caused those cells to form the cyst in the first place, residual parts of a sac not removed can reform the entire cyst if left behind after surgery. This can be seen especially with skin, ovary or kidney cysts.
Even with such growth potential, actual cancer in cysts is uncommon to rare, especially in the skin ones. The decision to remove a cyst is individual for each cyst. It depends on any functional problem, for example a kidney cyst obstructing urine flow, or maybe the owner’s desire to flatten a big old knob jutting out of a face. Almost any cyst can be cut out. Part of the choice is whether the resulting scar is better than the cyst, a definite discussion for facial ones. Sort of, do you want to look like a squirrel storing nuts for the winter or a pirate? Well…. perhaps those examples are a bit extreme.
I had best “recyst” any further remarks here, or, in other words, cease and “decyst.”
