ORPHA:141030
Third branchial cleft anomaly
Also known as: Third branchial cleft cyst · Third branchial cleft fistula
Publications
40
38.6th percentile
Trials
0
Interventional, condition-specific
Researchers
175
Distinct authors in sample
Gene link
—
Readiness
1/6
Stages with a signal
Clinical definition (Orphanet)
A rare otorhinolaryngeal characterized by a soft, fluctuant mass, abscess or draining tract along the anterior border of the lower half of sternocleidomastoid muscle, occasionally leading to development of retropharyngeal abscess, acute suppurative thyroiditis, stridor, respiratory distress, odynophagia, and dysphagia. Anomaly occurs as a tract from the piriform sinus to the thyroid gland. A third branchial cleft fistula passes superficial to both the superior and recurrent laryngeal nerves, which is the main difference in comparison to the fourth branchial cleft fistula.
Cross-references
Joined from Mondo / Orphanet. MeSH labels may enter searches; UMLS / OMIM / NCIT are stored for reference.
- MONDO:0015377
- UMLS:C3874314
Additional Mondo synonyms (2)
third branchial cleft cyst · third branchial cleft fistula
Research stages
Trial readiness signals
Where this condition sits on an open-data research pipeline — not how close a treatment is, and not medical advice. Empty stages often mean “not in these databases under this Mondo ID,” not “impossible.”
1/6 stages with a signal
Research-stage checklist from open sources (GenCC, literature, Monarch when enriched, ClinicalTrials.gov). Not a prognosis or care recommendation.
- Gene identifiedNot found
No GenCC disease–gene assertion in this build
- LiteraturePresent
40 matched papers (22 in last 10 years) Source
- Phenotype characterisedNot checked
Not yet enriched from Monarch / HPO
- Animal modelNot checked
Not yet enriched from Monarch / Alliance
- Orphan designationNot checked
FDA/EMA orphan-drug designation not enriched yet
- Interventional trialNot found
No matched interventional trial under our ClinicalTrials.gov rules
Biology
Genes and phenotypes
Gene–disease validity from GenCC, plus phenotypes and animal models joined from Monarch Initiative via Mondo ID — not a clinical diagnosis aid.
Do we know what causes it?
Not yet — the cause hasn't been pinned down in GenCC.
No strong gene–disease assertion joined for this Orphanet entity.
Phenotypes (Monarch / HPO)
Not enriched in this build — Monarch phenotype joins were not run for this record.
Animal models (Monarch / Alliance)
Not enriched in this build.
Literature
Is anyone studying this?
40
40 papers have ever been published on this condition (under this name). For scale, breast cancer has over 700,000. Median papers in the last 10 years for a rare disease in this dataset (publications denominator n=5449) is 41.
40 papers since the earliest indexed year in this search — median last-10-year count for a rare disease in this dataset is 41 (publications denominator n=5449).
22 in the last 10 years · high confidence · 38.6th percentile (publications denominator)
Phrase hits: 40 · MeSH hits: 0
Who's working on it?
175
Distinct author names in 40 sampled papers — named people below.
Who's working on it?
No interventional trial matched this name; these authors publish on it in the sampled literature — a practical starting point for contact.
- 01Ferzli GS2 papers · 2017
State University of New York Downstate Medical Center, Brooklyn, New York, USA.
Papers in Europe PMC - 02Forte V2 papers · 2010Papers in Europe PMC
- 03Adams A1 paper · 2016
Department of Radiology, Royal London Hospital, Barts Health NHS Trust, London, UK. ashokadams@hotmail.com.
Papers in Europe PMC - 04Afyan TS1 paper · 2021
Department of ENT and Maxillofacial Surgery "Heratsi" No. 1 University Hospital YSMU Yerevan Armenia.
Papers in Europe PMC - 05Agarwal S1 paper · 2014
Department of Pathology, Maulana Azad Medical College, Lok Nayak Hospital , New Delhi, India.
Papers in Europe PMC - 06Alavi S1 paper · 2000Papers in Europe PMC
- 07Aleksanyan LV1 paper · 2021
Department of ENT and Maxillofacial Surgery "Heratsi" No. 1 University Hospital YSMU Yerevan Armenia.
Papers in Europe PMC - 08
- 09Angeletti D1 paper · 2016
Organi di Senso Department, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy.
Papers in Europe PMC - 10Araujo Júnior E1 paper · 2021
Department of Obstetrics, Paulista School of Medicine, Federal University of São Paulo (EPM-UNIFESP), São Paulo, Brazil.
Papers in Europe PMC
Clinical research
Is a treatment being tested?
0
interventional trials for this specific condition
No interventional trial testing a treatment matched this specific condition name on ClinicalTrials.gov (observational studies and pan-disease registries are listed separately when present).
Data as of 27 July 2026
No matched interventional trials. This is true for 73% of diseases in the trials denominator (5114 of 7003). Here are the researchers publishing on it.
high confidence · 36.5th percentile (trials denominator)
Recruiting interventional trials
From the matched ClinicalTrials.gov set
No interventional trial testing a treatment was found for this specific condition name on ClinicalTrials.gov.
See who's working on it — people publishing on this disease are often the practical next contact when no trial is listed.
Where to find support
We do not yet link condition-specific patient organisations. These umbrella groups support undiagnosed and ultra-rare families:
India — NPRD
Last verified 2026-07-26This ORPHAcode is not on our curated NPRD list (direct or Mondo-parent match). That does not decide clinical eligibility; families in India should ask a notified Centre of Excellence about current coverage.
Hand-curated for this project. ORPHAcode mappings are best-effort and may be incomplete or imprecise for umbrella categories. Parent (Mondo) matches mean the policy lists a broader category — confirm eligibility with a Centre of Excellence. Financial entitlements summarised from public policy statements and may change. This is not official government guidance.
How we counted this
Europe PMC query (preferred label + any corrected label + Orphanet and Mondo exact synonyms, stoplisted; unioned with resolved MeSH labels when available). UMLS / OMIM / NCIT cross-references are stored on the overview but are not added to the query string.
"Third branchial cleft anomaly" OR "Third branchial cleft cyst" OR "Third branchial cleft fistula"
ClinicalTrials.gov query (quoted phrases + MeSH via query.cond, plus recall-expansion terms when used):
"Third branchial cleft anomaly" OR "Third branchial cleft cyst" OR "Third branchial cleft fistula"
Study-type breakdown: 0 interventional · 0 observational · 0 expanded access. Only interventional studies enter the trial headline.
Query health: ok — strategies attempted: phrase; with hits: phrase
Run this search on ClinicalTrials.gov
Confidence reasoning
- Preferred label is multi-word and distinctive
- No synonyms dropped by stoplist
- No label/synonym collisions with other diseases in this corpus
Ingested 2026-07-27T07:49:48.279Z