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PATTERNS OF MEDIASTINAL TUMORS

Objective: To review all the mediastinal tumors and cysts operated uponat Department of Thoracic Surgery, OICD, DUHS over a 2.5 year period. Study design:Retrospective descriptive study. Place and duration of study: Ojha Institute of Chest Diseases,Dow University of Health Sciences, Karachi, Pakistan from November 2012- April 2015. Materialand methods: 50 patients with mediastinal masses of either sex were included in the study.Tumors were categorized as arising from the anterior, middle and posterior mediastinum onthe basis of CT scan chest. Tumors were classified into various type based on the results ofhistopathology. Data was obtained from hospital medical records and proformas were filledfor each patient. Results: A total of 50 patients with mediastinal masses were seen at theDepartment of Thoracic Surgery, Ojha Institute of Chest Diseases between Nov 2012- April2015. There were 30 males and 20 females (ratio 1.5:1). Most of the patients were between 11-70 years of age, with mean age of 32 years. The most common location for mediastinal tumorswas found to be the anterior mediastinum which comprised of 40% of all tumors, followed byposterior (32%) and middle mediastinum respectively (28.0%). Shwanomma (18%) was themost common type of tumor observed, followed by lymphoma (12%) and germ cell tumors(10%). Conclusion: Mediastinal tumors are relatively uncommon in clinical setting. Thesetumors represent a group of heterogeneous masses present between two pleural cavities. Adefinitive early diagnosis is the key in management and prognosis of the patient.We present our5 year experience of patterns of mediastinal tumors.