A study of 30 patients with bronchogenic cysts in the skin and subcutaneous tissue is reported. In most instances the cysts were discovered at or soon after birth. They presented as a swelling or draining sinus, usually at or in the vicinity of the suprasternal notch and manubrium sterni. There was a marked preponderance of male patients. The lesion has rarely been correctly diagnosed either clinically or pathologically. Its distinctive histologic features are similar to those of the bronchogenic cysts in intrathoracic locations, including the presence of ciliated pseudostratified columnar epithelium, usually of smooth muscle and seromucous glands, and of cartilage in a few. It is likely that these cutaneous bronchogenic cysts arise during embryologic development as a result either of distant migration of sequestrated cells from the respiratory tree or of displacement of a preformed cyst from its origin in the thorax.