Mediastinal schwannoma with atypical localization diagnosed by endobronchial ultrasound

Schwannoma is a peripheral nerve sheath tumor usually originating from the posterior mediastinum. Because schwannomas can exhibit high fluorodeoxyglucose uptake on positron emission tomography, they cannot be distinguished from malignant tumors.

We present this case to stress the importance of endobronchial ultrasonography in the diagnosis of intrapulmonary masses with rare occurrence and different localization.

A patient was referred to our clinic for further workup of a soft tissue mass in the anterior mediastinum and diagnosed with a benign schwannoma by endobronchial ultrasonography.

The diagnosis is thus largely based on pathological examination. Until today schwannomas have been diagnosed by pathology examination of lesions excised surgically for suspected malignancy.

This article was reported since intrapulmonary schwannoma is a very rare tumor and this was the first case of an anterior mediastinal schwannoma diagnosed by endobronchial ultrasonography.