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Updated: Aug 23, 2026
Primary Culture of Human Vestibular Schwannomas
Published on: July 20, 2014
Imaging of ancient schwannoma
Kenichi Isobe1, Tominaga Shimizu, Tsutomu Akahane
1Department of Orthopedic Surgery, Shinshu University, School of Medicine, 3-1-1 Asahi, Matsumoto, Nagano 390-8621, Japan. bechikun@hsp.md.shinshu-u.ac.jp
Objective:
We surveyed the clinical symptoms and radiologic features of ancient schwannoma, a rare variant of schwannoma characterized by degenerative changes.
Materials And Methods:
We present the clinical, radiologic, and pathologic features in seven patients with ancient schwannoma (mean age, 62 years; range, 45-80 years) treated at our department between 1998 and 2003.
Results:
The most characteristic clinical features were a sign like Tinel's sign and a long interval between the onset of symptoms and surgery (mean interval, 8.3 years). Ancient schwannomas can grow large; the biggest tumor seen in our study was 14 cm long. The highly accurate radiologic assessment made possible with contrast-enhanced MRI and CT scanning showed enhancement at a peridegenerative area and sometimes at a capsule. These findings differ from those of the typical schwannoma and neurofibroma patterns reported to date. Furthermore, bone scintigraphy showed uptake in the tumor, but no accumulation was seen on gallium-67 citrate scintigraphy.
Conclusion:
The characteristic clinical and radiologic findings of ancient schwannoma should make it possible to differentiate it from malignant tumors.
