title: Giant intrathoracic meningoceles associated with cutaneous neurofibromatosis type I: case report.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Intrathoracic meningocele is a rare pathology, almost always associated with neurofibromatosis type I and with a few cases related in the literature. In the majority of cases cysts are small or asymptomatic, and the surgery is indicated when big or symptomatic cysts are present. We report a case of giant intrathoracic cysts surgically extirpated through out thoracotomy.
  
  
  METHODS
  A 59-year-old male with familiar Von Recklinghausen's disease which developed thoracic radicular pain after a fall. On examination he presented some difficulty in walking fast and dyspneia on small efforts. The chest plain x-ray showed the presence of 3 huge left side intrathoracic cysts (10 to 15cm). The patient was submitted to a surgical treatment and complete extirpation of the cysts was performed through a left side thoracotomy. During the surgery a fourth smaller cyst was detected and also extirpated. Evolution was uneventful and the patient remains well in these last 12 years. This finding of intrathoracic cysts related to neurofibromatosis type I is rare and is probably unique in the literature the presence of 4 huge cysts in one side of the thorax.
mesh_terms: D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D008588:Meningocele / Q000150:complications* / Q000601:surgery; D008875:Middle Aged; D009456:Neurofibromatosis 1 / Q000150:complications* / Q000601:surgery; D013909:Thorax; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed