[Mediastinal dumbbell angiolipoma]

Dumbbell tumors are extremely rare. Most are neurogenic in origin. Growth is both inside and outside the spinal canal, and symptoms debut with medullary or spinal compression. References to non-neurogenic dumbbell tumors are uncommon. This report describes the case of a 56 year-old woman with a dumbbell angiolipoma having mediastinal and spinal cord portions. The tumor was successfully resected using a two-stage procedure. First, the spinal portion was resected using a posterior neurosurgical approach, with improvement of symptoms. Then, the mediastinal portion was removed thoracoscopically.