[A successfully treated case of thoracic meningocele with von Recklinghausen's disease]

Intrathoracic meningocele is an uncommon disease. Only 95 cases in the foreign literature and 13 cases in Japanese literature have been reported since Phol Meningocele occurs most frequently in the sacral and lumbar spinal regions. In this present paper, an 18-year-old female with intrathoracic meningocele associated with neurofibromatosis is described. The patient was admitted to our Surgical Clinic with a complaint of constrictive pain in the upper chest. The meningocele was diagnosed preoperatively and resected surgically by left thoracotomy. The patient has been followed up to for six years without any evidences of local recurrence. However, she recently complains of headache and weakened eyesight because of pituitary tumor, the operative indication of which is now discussed.