title: A strategy of sequential therapy with a bronchoscopic excision and thoracotomy for intra- and extrabronchial wall schwannoma: report of a case.
abstract: A 69-year-old woman was admitted with dyspnea on effort and left lung atelectasis on chest X-ray. Fiberoptic bronchoscopy revealed a complete obstruction of the left main bronchus due to a polypoid lesion. This lesion was diagnosed to be a schwannoma arising from the left lower bronchus. Bronchoscopic treatments were performed with electrosurgical snaring and the intratumoral injection of 99.5% ethanol. These treatments were performed once per week for 4 weeks, then were followed with a one-time application of semiconductor laser cautery. These treatments opened the airway and restored the left lung expansion. However, a residual tumor remained at the bifurcation of the left basal bronchus and B6. A cautious follow-up was conducted because schwannoma is a potentially benign tumor. A follow-up bronchoscopic examination at 21 months revealed a regrowth of the residual tumor. A complete resection using a left S6 sleeve segmentectomy was thus performed. The pathologic diagnosis of the tumor was benign schwannoma. There were no complications and no evidence of disease recurrence has been observed after the surgery.
authors.affiliation: Department of Thoracic Surgery, Graduate School of Medicine, Chiba University, 1-8-1 Inohana, Chuo-ku, Chiba, 260-8670, Japan.
authors.forename: Teruaki
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Mizobuchi
authors.forename: Toshihiko
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Iizasa
authors.forename: Akira
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Iyoda
authors.forename: Sumito
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Satoh
authors.forename: Takashi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Anayama
authors.forename: Kenzo
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Hiroshima
authors.forename: Takehiko
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Fujisawa
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D001984:Bronchial Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000601:surgery*; D001999:Bronchoscopy; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D009442:Neurilemmoma / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000601:surgery*; D013908:Thoracotomy