Niaz Hussain Soomro, Ali Shan Shariff, Aneeqa Ahsan Zafar, Omar Ehtisham, Guzel Maxood, Kinza Panjwani.
Patterns of mediastinal tumors; a two and half year experience.
Professional Med J Jan ;23(2):223-7.

To review all the mediastinal tumors and cysts operated upon at 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. Material and 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 on the basis of CT scan chest. Tumors were classified into various type based on the results of histopathology. Data was obtained from hospital medical records and proformas were filled for each patient. Results: A total of 50 patients with mediastinal masses were seen at the Department of Thoracic Surgery, Ojha Institute of Chest Diseases between Nov 2012- April 2015. 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 tumors was found to be the anterior mediastinum which comprised of 40% of all tumors, followed by posterior (32%) and middle mediastinum respectively (28.0%). Shwanomma (18%) was the most common type of tumor observed, followed by lymphoma (12%) and germ cell tumors (10%). Conclusion: Mediastinal tumors are relatively uncommon in clinical setting. These tumors represent a group of heterogeneous masses present between two pleural cavities. A definitive early diagnosis is the key in management and prognosis of the patient.We present our 5 year experience of patterns of mediastinal tumors.

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