An early presenting esophageal schwannoma

Abstract

Esophageal schwannoma is a rare diagnosis and historically has been a tumor of middle-aged females. We report a case of a 22-year-old male presenting initially with dyspnea secondary to tracheal compression from an 8 × 6 × 3.0 cm esophageal schwannoma. The tumor was surgically resected, and diagnosis was confirmed with immunohistochemical and pathological studies. We report the youngest case of esophageal schwannoma in an otherwise healthy individual.

Figure 1

Chest X-ray AP (a) and lateral (b) views showing a large mediastinal mass (A).

Figure 2

CT scan (a) with coronal view (b) showing large posterior mediastinal mass (A) with tracheal compression.

Figure 3

The enucleated esophageal schwannoma was yellowish-white, smooth, and well-defined without any pedunculated portions.

Figure 4

Histology of the esophageal mass upon resection. Microscopic examination of the esophageal mass revealed palisading spindled cells with dense chromatin, rare mitoses and scattered atypia (H&E, x100). Immunohistochemistry revealed the tumor to be positive for the S100 protein (not shown), confirming nerve sheath origin.