Primary Benign Pleural Schwannoma - A Rare Case

Abstract

Usually, a solitary encapsulated benign peripheral nerve sheath tumour called the schwannoma is seen in age groups of twenty to sixty years with mean age of fortyfive years. They are commonly located on the flexor surfaces of the extremities, posterior spinal roots, neck, retroperitoneum, mediastinum, and cerebellopontine angle. Schwannomas of the pleural surface of the lungs are usually rare and are benign, asymptomatic, and slow growing lesions that arise from the autonomic nerve fibre sheaths and their occurrence is more common in adults with a male predominance.1 Schwannomas may occur in patients with underlying genetic disorders like neurofibromatosis 2, schwannomatosis or Carney complex. Neurofibroma and other benign spindle cell tumours such as leiomyosarcoma, leiomyoma and calcifying aponeurotic fibroma which may also show palisading of the nuclei are the histopathological differential diagnoses.1 Schwannoma, which is a benign peripheral nerve sheath tumour is also called neurilemmoma. 1 % - 2% of the neoplasms of the thoracic cavity are the pleural schwannomas which are extremely rare. Here is a case report of a 50-year-old female diagnosed with primary benign pleural schwannoma which was discovered incidentally in a chest computed tomography. A video assisted thoracoscopic wide local excision of the right chest wall was done on the patient which showed histopathological and immunohistochemical features of schwannoma.