The risk of life-threatening complications during induction of anesthesia in patients with anterior mediastinal mass is well recognized. Maintenance of spontaneous ventilation during anesthesia is an accepted standard goal in all published reports. However, the decision to paralyze the patient, which is really needed in most surgical procedures, is still a challenging event. In this study, “man...

Solitary fibrous tumors are uncommon spindle cell neoplasms originally thought to be restricted to the pleura. We describe a 62-year-old woman who presented with stridor and an anterior mediastinal mass. At thoracotomy, a 10.5 x 6.5 x 5.5 cm, circumscribed, firm mediastinal mass demonstrated no direct cardiac or pulmonary involvement. The tumor consisted of spindle cells organized in a patternl...

Superior vena cava syndrome is a clear sign for clinicians of infiltrative mediastinal involvement, usually caused by neoplasms in this location, and it is an indicator of poor prognosis. However, other diseases of benign origin can also cause these alterations. We present the case of a 34-year-old patient who debuted with symptoms of superior vena cava syndrome due to idiopathic mediastinal fi...

Meningiomas are common neoplasms arising from the central nervous system meninges. On the other hand, primary ectopic meningiomas are extremely rare and usually limited to the head and neck region or to the paravertebral soft tissues. Their occurrence in the mediastinum is even rarer. Until now, only 4 cases of primary mediastinal meningioma have been reported in the literature searched on Medl...

In the preantibiotic era, pyogenic thoracic vertebral osteomyelitis was often complicated by mediastinal abscess, empyema, or necrotising pneumonia which arose by contiguous invasion late in the disease and progressed to bacteraemia and death.' Since the advent of antibiotics, however, the disease more often presents insidiously and may simulate mediastinal tumour, or gastrointestinal, genitour...

The problems of cardio-vascular surgery in infancy cannot be satisfactorily included in this short review, which will deal with thoracic diseases other than those of the heart and great vessels. The problems will be considered under five headings:I. Oesophageal atresia and stenosis. 2. Diaphragmatic hernia. 3. Mediastinal cysts and neoplasms. 4. Lung cysts and infections. 5. Deformities of the ...

Glomus tumors are rare benign neoplasms that predominate in limbs. Infrequently, they can occur in a wide anatomic distribution, to include sites not known to contain glomus cells. Although glomus tumors are usually small, pain and tenderness are common clinical symptoms. We report the case of a 69-year-old man with an asymptomatic large mediastinal glomus tumor, who underwent surgical resection.

NUT midline carcinomas (NMCs) comprise a group of highly aggressive tumors that have been reported primarily in the head, neck, and mediastinum of younger individuals. These tumors overexpress the nuclear protein in the testis (NUT), most commonly due to a chromosomal translocation that fuses the NUT gene on chromosome 15 with the BRD4 gene on chromosome 19. Although the earliest recognized cas...

Solitary Fibrous Tumors (SFTs) are rare primary pleural neoplasms which have recently been reported in extra-thoracic sites. In this report, solitary fibrous tumor arising in an intra-thoracic goiter with no evidence of cervical mass in a 74-year-old obese man who was found to have a large superior mediastinal mass with tracheal deviation on Chest X-Ray is presented.

Primary liposarcomas of the mediastinum are extremely rare neoplasms, comprising less than 1% of all mediastinal tumors. These tumors occur most commonly in the lower extremities (75%) and less frequently in the retroperitoneum. We present a case involving a successful radical resection of a large myxoid liposarcoma and its recurrence, both located in the posterior mediastinum.