Turkish Neurosurgery 2013 , Vol 23 , Num 2
Cerebral Hernia Caused by a Thoracic Surgery for Multiple Schwannomas in a Patient with Neurofibromatosis Type 2
Sida QIN1, Chengcheng YANG2, Hong REN1
1First Affiliated Hospital, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Faculty of Medicine, Departments of Thoracic Surgery, Xi'an, P.R. China
2First Affiliated Hospital, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Faculty of Medicine, Departments of Oncology, Xi'an, P.R. China
DOI : 10.5137/1019-5149.JTN.4091-11.1 Schwannoma is a benign nerve sheath tumor composed of Schwann cells. A solitary schwannoma in the thorax is not rare, but a patient with Neurofibromatosis type 2 (NF2) and multiple thoracic schwannomas is extremely rare. We report the case of a 27-year-old woman with NF2 and two large schwannomas in her mediastinum and chest wall. We performed thoracic surgery on the patient, but she developed a cerebral hernia immediately after the operation. We report this case in order to analyze the relationship between the operation and cerebral hernia and find a way to prevent this consequence in the future. We conclude that a cranial MRI must be performed for patients with multiple thoracic schwannomas before the surgery. If there is a tumor inside the cranium, the disease in the brain must be treated first to prevent the occurrence of cerebral hernia or hemorrhage. Keywords : Schwannoma, Neurofibromatosis type 2, Hemorrhage, Cerebral hernia, Thoracic surgery
Corresponding author : Hong Ren, renhongs2000@gmail.com