Abstract
During the past 17 years, we have had 52 patients with schwannomas which were diagnosed clinically and pathologically. Nine of them involved the brachial plexus. We have investigated the clinical features of schwannomas of the brachial plexus.
Five patients were men and 4 were women. Their ages when visiting our hospital ranged from 28 to 78 years old with an average of 43 years old. The interval between onset of the symptoms and their first visit to the hospital ranged from 2 months to 5 years. The initial symptom was the exisitence of a tumor mass in the supraclavicular region in all except one patient. Seven patients complained of paresthesia in the upper extremities. Examinations revealed neurological deficit in 5 patients. Sensory disturbance was found in 3 and motor disturbance in 2. Compression or tapping of the mass elicited radiating pain into the upper extrmeties in all patients.
Operations we r e porformed on 8 patients. Tumors originated from the 6th cervical root in one patient, from the 7th cervical root in two, from the 8th cervical root in two, from the upper trunk in one, and from the lower trunk in one case. In one case, the origin could not be identified. Tumors were removed by enucleation in 2 cases. In the other 6, dissection between the nerve and the tumor was difficult. So the tumors were resected together with the involved funiculus in 3, and with the involved root in 3. Postoperative examination revealed that the operations resulted in neurological deficits in 6. In 4 of these, the deficit was transient, and they recovered within 3 months. No motor disturbance was found in 2 of the 3 patients on whom the nerve root had been resected.
