Pancreatic schwannoma: an uncommon but important entity

The literature contains five single case reports of pancreatic schwannoma-two of the five occurred in patients with von Recklinghausen's disease, and three of the five proved malignant. Within a 3-month period, we resected benign pancreatic schwannomas in two patients without von Recklinghausen's disease. Both patients presented with pain that led to the discovery of a complex pancreatic mass on abdominal CT scan. Pancreatic schwannoma should be included in the differential diagnosis of cystic or solid pancreatic abnormalities on imaging studies.