1990 Volume 1990 Issue Supplement37 Pages 310-321
The patient was a 46-year-old male. He consulted our department complaining mainly of a gradually growing mass at the right cervical portion.
The mass is painless and compression did not ca u se hoarseness and cough. Total extirapation including neurectomy was performed for the mass, and a diagnosis of neurilemmoma originating from the vagal nerve was made on the basis of anatomic location of the mass and of pathohistological study. The frequency of this kind of tumor has been said to be relatively low, and totaled only 63 cases in Japan including the present case as far as we could investigate.
However, the number of its report has been increasing these years and the frequency of onset did not to be so low as reported hitherto. Biopsy was necessary in the diagnosis, and diagnostic imaging did not allow a qualitative diagnosis, even MRI only indicated the anatomic location of the tumor. With the treatment total extirapation including severance of the vagal nerve has been recommended hitherto, but reports that vocal cord movements could be preserved by subcapsular extirapation have been increasing recently and this seems to be a treatment method to be considered depending on the condition of the tumor.
