GANGLIONEUROMA OF MEDIASTINUM REQUIRING SURGICAL INTERVENTION FOR RELIEF OF OBSTRUCTIVE SYMPTOMS

Abstract

Patients on whom it is possible to use only palliative surgical procedures are, unfortunately, often seen. Occasionally, the pathologic condition found gives rise to considerable discussion because of its relative infrequency. Mediastinal tumors requiring surgical intervention because of symptoms of tracheal obstruction are rare. Of these, tumors arising from the sympathetic nervous system are perhaps the most rare. Because of its rarity and interest, we wish to report a case of ganglioneuroma apparently arising from the thoracic or the cervical segment of the sympathetic system. REPORT OF A CASE History. —A. B., a boy, aged 4 years, was admitted to St. Mary's Hospital on Nov. 20, 1925, with the complaint of difficulty in breathing and of swelling in the right side of the neck. The maternal grandfather was said to have died of cancer of the stomach and the paternal grandmother of cancer of the liver. A paternal uncle had