2025 Volume 39 Issue 4 Pages 353-358
The patient was a 74-year-old man who had sustained a traumatic chest injury and received left thoracic drainage 4 years earlier.
In 2023, he consulted the referring physician with the chief complaint of left chest pain. Chest CT showed a tumor in the left chest wall, and the patient was referred to our department. Based on the radiological findings, we suspected a chronic expanding hematoma and performed video-assisted thoracic surgery. Intraoperatively, we found an elastic-hard tumor in the dorsal aspect of the left Vth intercostal space where the thoracic drain had been inserted 4 years earlier. As intraoperative pathological examination showed that the tumor was a benign/low-grade-malignant fibrotic tumor, we performed tumor extirpation without concomitant resection of the chest wall. Postoperative histopathological examination revealed the tumor to be desmoid fibromatosis of the thorax. The patient was followed up without additional resection or radiotherapy, and to date, at 6 months after surgery, there has been no recurrence. Desmoid tumor is a rare disease that can occur at sites of trauma or surgical wounds. Because the local recurrence rate of desmoid tumors is high, careful observation is necessary.
