[Palliative surgery in upper thoracic venous obstructions]

33 patients (4.6%) of 711 surgical patients with thoracic disease had symptoms of upper thoracic venous obstructions. Histological differentiations proved the majority of tumors to be malignant. New successes in oncology-treatments of these tumors made early histological diagnosis mandatory. Our results lead to mediastinoscopies in these patients, although literature considered the risk of mediastinoscopy in upper thoracic venous obstructions as to high. We found no major complications in this group of patients and would like to emphasize the need of early histological diagnosis through mediastinoscopy in upper thoracic venous obstructions.