cervical vagal schwannoma patient portal

What is schwannoma of the vagus nerve?

in En , Italian Schwannoma originating from the cervical vagus nerve is an extremely rare neoplasm. Vagal nerve schwannoma usually occurs between the third and fifth decades of life, it does not show sex predilection both sexes being equally affected and it most often presents as a painless, slow-growing, lateral neck mass.

What is the standard of care for vagal schwannoma?

A schwannoma, also known as an acoustic neuroma, is a benign nerve sheath tumor composed of schwann cells, which normally produce the insulating myelin sheath covering the peripheral nerves. Schwannoma, originating from the cervical vagus nerve, is an extremely rare neoplasm that usually occurs in men between the 3rd and 6th decades of life.

Is intermittent nerve mapping the future standard of care for vagal schwannoma?

May 05, 2013 · Schwannoma originating from the cervical vagus nerve is an extremely rare neoplasm. They usually occur between the third and fifth decades of life, with no definite sex predilection. The pre-operative diagnosis of schwannoma is a clinical challenge and is …

What is schwannoma of the cervical sympathetic chain?

Aug 15, 2011 · The schwannoma arising from the cervical sympathetic chain (SCSC) is a very rare lesion and, until the time of this report, only 60 cases had been reported in English medical literature.3 The SCSC typically presents as painless, asymptomatic neck mass. This is due to the fact that the cervical sympathetic chain (CSC) runs in a relatively loose ...

Epidemiology

Schwannoma arising from the vagus nerve is an uncommon (2–5%) benign nerve tumour.

Diagnosis

Diagnosis is based on clinical suspicion and confirmation obtained by means of surgical pathology.

Differential diagnosis

Schwannomas of the vagus nerve must be differentiated from the carotid body and glomus vagale tumors because the distinction may influence treatment planning.

Treatment

Surgical excision is the treatment of choice for vagal schwannoma, with recurrence being rare.

Outcome

Nerve damage during surgical resection is associated with significant morbidity 5).

Literature review

In a comprehensive literature review on 197 articles reporting 235 cases of cervical vagal schwannomas. Presenting symptoms, treatment approach, and postoperative outcomes were recorded and analyzed.

Case series

Case series of three patients who underwent vagal schwannoma excision utilizing a IONM technique. The recurrent laryngeal and vagus nerves were monitored via the laryngeal adductor reflex (LAR) using an electromyographic endotracheal tube.

Abstract

Cervical vagal schwannoma is a benign, slow-growing mass, often asymptomatic, with a very low lifetime risk of malignant transformation in general population, but diagnosis is still a challenge. Surgical resection is the treatment of choice even if its close relationship with nerve fibres, from which it arises, threats vagal nerve preservation.

Conclusions

Schwannoma arising from the cervical vagus is a rare, benign pathology usually giving unspecific symptoms and requiring surgical excision, but frequently postoperative complications can affect patients lifelong, so, surgical indications should be based carefully on the balance between risks and benefits.

Rights and permissions

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 ), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited.

About this article

Cavallaro, G., Pattaro, G., Iorio, O. et al. A literature review on surgery for cervical vagal schwannomas. World J Surg Onc 13, 130 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12957-015-0541-6