title: Ancient schwannoma of the facial nerve: a case report.
abstract: Ancient schwannomas are rare benign tumours, deriving from neural crest cells. Schwannomas of the head and neck are frequently misdiagnosed and preoperative investigations are often fruitless. We report a very rare case of a patient with a schwannoma of the seventh nerve. T.A., a 43-year-old male, was referred to our department in September 2003 with a 6-month history of a gradually enlarging asymptomatic right neck mass. Ultrasonography of the parotid gland demonstrated the presence of a nodule, with irregular borders, measuring about 2.90 x 2.00 x 1.70 cm. During surgery we found a mass apparently spreading from the parotid gland and therefore we decided to resect the mass together with the gland. The histological examination yielded a diagnosis of ancient schwannoma. Schwannomas are very rare and approximately 25-30% of all reported cases occur in the head and neck, mostly in the eighth nerve, while involvement of the seventh nerve is extremely rare.
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgical Sciences, Organ Transplantations and Advanced Technologies University of Catania.
authors.forename: Raffaele
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Lanteri
authors.forename: Cristian
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Rapisarda
authors.forename: Marco
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Santangelo
authors.forename: Antonio
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Di Cataldo
authors.forename: Antonio
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Licata
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D003390:Cranial Nerve Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000601:surgery*; D005155:Facial Nerve Diseases / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000601:surgery*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009442:Neurilemmoma / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000601:surgery*; D010307:Parotid Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000601:surgery*; D016896:Treatment Outcome