Schwannoma of the brachial plexus with intrathoracic extension.

Neurilemomas (schwannomas) are relatively rare tumours, a high proportion of which develop in the head and neck.' A review of 480 benign neurilemomas recorded in the literature mentioned only 24 cases arising from the brachial plexus,1-5 all of which were characteristically difficult to diagnose, since they appeared as an increase in the supraclavicular volume which oriented diagnosis towards lipoma, lymphoma, metastasic adenopathy, and so on. None of the cases described mentioned an intrathoracic development of the tumour.