Serena Williams’ Health Scare: What is Branchial Cyst and Is it Cancerous? Everything You Need to Know
We’ve all seen players fall prey to nasty on-court injuries. Serena Williams, although, hardly ever endured testing times as such, has unfortunately landed in medical trouble. The WTA star was diagnosed with a lump after undergoing an MRI in May. With fans worried, the American sensation aired a crucial announcement surrounding her branchial cleft cyst diagnosis. Don’t fret, it does seem like a ‘scientific mouthful’. However, its alarming growth inside her body prompts the question, what is it?
Classified as a congenital birth defect, more precisely as a set of underlying tissues in a neck grows unconventionally. While the visually seen ‘lump-like’ deformity is usually corrected in children, in some cases the defect’s underwhelming growth goes undetected. As per medical research, the cyst is benign – meaning it bores no cancerous properties. However, in extreme cases, the deformity can harbor malignant tumors, much like a rare case of a cancerous branchial cleft cyst found in 2012. The good news is, it is curable.
Although we don’t know much about Serena’s case yet, such cysts are generally surgically removable. It is generally advised by doctors to do so after the patient has received their initial antibiotic treatment to prevent infection. After minor surgery, the patient is kept under observation and is required to rest in a sanitized environment for subsequent days. For the uninitiated, this isn’t the first time Williams is battling a medical complication. At the time of her eldest daughter Olympia Ohanian’s birth in 2017, the WTA star underwent an emergency C-section that later bore several problems in the aftermath
