A bilateral cervical swelling and it is not a malignancy.
BACKGROUND
This case report is about a patient with 2 synchronous bilateral cervical schwannomas.


METHODS
A 59-year-old white man presented a 6-month history of painless bilateral cervical swelling. Magnetic resonance imaging revealed 2 tumors in the carotid sheath. Both tumors, which derived from the cervical sympathetic chain, were surgically removed.


RESULTS
Histopathologically, both tumors were diagnosed as schwannomas.


CONCLUSIONS
Commonly, a bilateral cervical swelling is not caused by 2 schwannomas. It is unusual for 2 schwannomas to appear in a patient synchronously without any evidence of neurofibromatosis or schwannomatosis. Differential diagnosis of a bilateral cervical swelling includes malignancy, carotid body tumor, and chronic infection.
Department of Cranio-Maxillofacial Surgery, Maastricht University Medical Center, Maastricht University, The Netherlands, Germany. roland.boeckmann@gmx.net
Roland A
RA
Böckmann
Bernd
B
Lethaus
Patrick
P
Schön
Eckhard
E
Mielke
Peter
P
Kessler
Ingo
I
Stricker
D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D006258:Head and Neck Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology* / Q000601:surgery; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009333:Neck; D009442:Neurilemmoma / Q000473:pathology* / Q000601:surgery