Mediastinal tumor resection

If you develop a tumor in the middle of your upper chest, it may be called a mediastinal tumor if it’s located in the mediastinum. The mediastinum is the area between your lungs, your neck and your diaphragm. It includes your heart, blood vessels, lymph vessels, nerves and other kinds of tissues, but doesn’t include your ribs or your spine.

About mediastinal tumors

Mediastinal tumors are rare. In adults, mediastinal tumors are more likely to occur between the ages of 30 and 50 years. They can form in any of the tissues found in the mediastinum.

In children, mediastinal tumors are usually benign (noncancerous) and usually grow in nerve cells. Mediastinal tumors in adults are more often malignant (cancerous).

Mediastinal tumor symptoms

Mediastinal tumors often don’t have symptoms in adults. Symptoms are more common in children because there’s not as much room in a child’s mediastinum. So a mediastinal tumor in a child doesn’t have to be very big to put pressure on the lungs, windpipe (trachea) or other structures.

Weight loss and chest pain are the most common mediastinal tumor symptoms. Other symptoms include:

Diagnosis of mediastinal tumors

Since you may not have symptoms from a mediastinal tumor, you may not know you have it until it’s discovered in an X-ray or other imaging test that’s done for another condition.

A biopsy needs to be done to confirm diagnosis of a cancerous mediastinal mass. CT or MRI screening may also be recommended to gather more information about the tumor.

Treatment for mediastinal tumors

For benign tumors that aren’t causing symptoms, your doctor may recommend regular monitoring. For cancerous tumors, they’ll recommend some combination of chemotherapy, radiation therapy or surgery.

Our expert mediastinal tumor surgeons are skilled in procedures performed so close to the heart and lungs. We’re nationally known for our expertise in robotic thoracic surgery techniques. We use minimally invasive techniques as much as possible because they offer:

• Faster healing
• Fewer complications
• Less pain after surgery
• Less removal of healthy tissue
• Smaller incisions for less scarring

Video-assisted thoracic surgery

One minimally invasive technique we use for resection of a mediastinal tumor is video-assisted thoracic surgery (VATS). VATS makes use of small tubes to insert a camera and tiny tools. For surgery on the mediastinum, the tubes are inserted through small incisions and guided between ribs at different points on your chest.

Images from the camera are used to find your tumor and guide the tools being used to perform a biopsy or remove the tumor.

Open surgery

Open surgery may be needed to remove a mediastinal tumor depending on the size, location and grade of the tumor. Your thoracic surgery specialist may need to spread your ribs apart or cut through the sternum (breastbone) to get access to the tumor. Open surgery requires a longer hospital stay and carries a greater risk of infection. We’ll do everything we can to preserve your health and hasten healing.