A rare case report of anterior mediastinal paraganglioma presenting as superior venacaval obstruction

Abstract

A 44 year old male, a chronic smoker presented with of hoarseness of voice for 5 years, loss of weight for 3 months, breathlessness for 10 days. Physical examination showed dilated veins over the anterior chest wall. CT chest revealed a mass extending from the lower part of the neck to the anterior mediastinum displacing and compressing the trachea and vascular structures. CT guided biopsy of the mass lesion led to the diagnosis of anterior mediastinal paraganglioma. Since the tumour was unresectable at the time of presentation, surgery was deferred and he underwent radiotherapy. In due course of time patient succumbed to the disease and expired 4 months after diagnosis. This case is being reported due to rarity of the disease. Mediastinal paraganglioma accounts for only about 2% of the paraganglioma, and we report a case of anterior mediastinal paraganglioma with superior venacaval obstruction which is exceptionally rare.

Keywords

• anterior mediastinal paraganglioma
• neuron specific enolase
• ct guided biopsy
• superior vena caval obstruction syndrome key message anterior mediastinal paragangliomas are rare mediastinal tumours and should be kept in mind while evaluating any mediastinal mass. complete surgical resection is the treatment of choice. this case is reported due to the rarity of occurrence of paraganglioma in the anterior mediastinum.