[The superficial midline cervical cleft].
Given the anatomy and the histology of the 4 cases of children with a midline cervical cleft presented in this work, and after reviewing the specific literature, an etiologic relationship between: this congenital malformation and the subcutaneous midline cervical bronchogenic cyst can be established. The presence of pseudostratified ciliated columnar epithelium in both entities and their anatomic relationship are determinant. The anatomic differences with the thyroglossal duct cyst indicated that their embryological origins were different, in spite of the presence of ciliated epithelium. In a 6 months old infant, the extirpation of the lesion without practicing a Z-plasty was carried out due to the small size of the malformation with good result after 3 months.