title: Neck schwannoma diagnosed by core needle biopsy: a case report.
abstract: Here we present a case of a 58 year old man referred to our hospital to undergo neck and thyroid ultrasonography (US) following palpable neck mass. US revealed a solid hypoechoic nodule in right thyroid lobe, and a solid lesion on the right laterocervical neck region with ultrasound suspicious features of neoplastic lymph node. In order to achieve a diagnosis of the neck mass and to get a proper evaluation of the thyroid nodule, we decided to perform a fine-needle aspiration (FNA) of both lesions. At cytopathologic examination the thyroid nodule appeared as benign, while cytologic sampling of the neck lesion was inadequate for a proper evaluation. Thus, we performed core needle biopsy (CNB) of the neck lesion like recently proposed for thyroid lesions; also, to definitively exclude malignancy of thyroid nodule, this also underwent CNB. Histologic report of CNB confirmed benign thyroid nodule, while the neck lesion revealed a proliferation of neuronal type consistent with schwannoma. The patient has been addressed to clinical and ultrasonographic follow-up. CNB appears as a safe and minimally-invasive approach to diagnose indeterminate neck masses and avoid unnecessary diagnostic surgery.
authors.affiliation: Section of Surgery, Ospedale Israelitico, Via Fulda, 14, 00148 Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Nasrollah
authors.affiliation: Section of Endocrinology and Diabetology, Ospedale Israelitico, Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Trimboli
authors.affiliation: Section of Surgery, Policlinico Tor Vergata, Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Bianchi
authors.affiliation: Section of Pathology, Ospedale Israelitico, Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Taccogna