title: Mediastinal neurogenic tumours. Early and late results of surgical treatment.
abstract: Early and late results of surgery for neurogenic mediastinal tumour were evaluated in 66 cases with a mean follow-up of 12 years. The series comprised 48 neurilemmomas, 8 neurofibromas, 7 ganglioneuromas, and neurinoma, neurofibrosarcoma and ganglioneuroblastoma each in one case. There were two early deaths (3%), one due to peroperative bleeding from the left subclavian artery and the other to acute myocardial infarction. Operative complications arose in 12 cases (18%), the most common being wound infection (3 cases). There were 17 late deaths (26.6%). In the neurilemmoma group, 3 of the 13 late deaths were related to the tumour or its treatment, and both deaths in the neurofibroma group were related to malignant transformation. Recurrence of tumour appeared in 3 of the 48 patients with neurilemmoma and also in the single patient with neurinoma as tumour classification. One neurilemmoma was a dumb-bell tumour, and operation in this case resulted in paraplegia. Malignant transformation appeared in 2 of the 8 neurofibromas 5 and 13 years postoperatively. Because of the risks of malignant degeneration and of recurrence, patients operated on for neurogenic mediastinal tumour should be carefully followed up for many years.
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D005729:Ganglioneuroma / Q000601:surgery; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008479:Mediastinal Neoplasms / Q000601:surgery*; D008875:Middle Aged; D009442:Neurilemmoma / Q000601:surgery; D009455:Neurofibroma / Q000601:surgery; D011379:Prognosis