• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.245-252
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• 1991

For the purpose of evaluation of clinical characteristics and histopathological properties in mediastinal tumors and cysts, 50 patients with mediastinal tumors and cysts treated at the department of thoracic and cardiovascular surgery in Chosun University Hospital during the period from January, 1978 to Mach, 1990 were reviewed. The results of this cases analysis were as follows; 1. of all 50 mediastinal tumors and cysts, 27 patients were male and 23 patients were female. There was no sex preference. The age distribution was from 10 months to 84 years, and mean age was 37 years old, and no age preference. 2. Subjective symptoms were as follows : Dyspnea[54%], Chest pain[44%], Coughing [34%] Fever[16%] and General malaise[12%]. Objective signs were as follows: Decreased breathing sound[46%], Pleural effusion and hemothorax[32%], Palpable neck mass[24%] and SVC syndrome[14%]. But, there were no definitive symptoms in 5 cases[10%]. 3. The most frequently encountered tumors were teratodermoid tumors[26%] followed by lymphomas[22%], thymomas[12%] and benign cysts[8%] in decreasing order of frequency. 4. Based on the subdivision of the mediastinum, 44% of the tumors were in the anterior mediastinum, 24% in the middle mediastinum, 18% in the superior mediastinum and 14% in the posterior mediastinum. 5. The malignant tumors were 25 cases[50%]. 6. The successful removal was possible in all the benign mediastinal tumors and cysts. In malignant cases, the surgical removal had been 12 cases and inoperable cases were treated to radiation and chemotherapy. 7. Postoperative complications were bleeding, wound infection, pneumothorax and vocal cord paralysis. The recurrence was 3 cases. 8. The most frequent mediastinal tumor in the west is neurogenic tumor but is teratoma in Korea.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.38 no.2
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• pp.128-134
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• 1991

This report is an analysis of 60 cases of primary mediastinal tumors and cysts which were experienced in chonbuk National University Hospital, Wonkwang University Hospital and Chonju Presbyterian Medical Center from january 1985 to October 1990. The result was summarized like this; 1) Age distribution was various from ages of 5 to 75 years. There were 26 males and 34 females, sex ratio of patients was 1: 1.3 (M:F). 2) The most common chief compliant was dyspnea (21 cases, 35%) and followed by chest pain, coughing and chest discomfort. 17 patients (28%) were asymptomatic. 3) The most common primary mediastinal tumor was thymoma, which comprise 28% (17 cases) of all our cases and followed by neruogenic tumor (14 cases, 23%) and germ cell tumor (11 cases, 18%). 4) The incidence of malignancy of all case was 22%; 2 cases were asymptomatic and the most common malignancy was malignant lympoma (5 cases, 38.5%). 5) The anterior mediastinum was the most common tumor location and followed by posterior and middle mediastinum. Anterior mediastinal tumors mainly consisted of thymomas and germ cell tumors and posterioc mediastinal tumors mainly did neurogenic tumors. 6) Of 60 cases, 21 cases were confirmed histopathologically by percutaneous transthoracic needle lung biopsy. 7) Of 60 cases, 40 cases were received radical tumor resection.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.624-629
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• 1987

Tuberculosis is one of the most common chronic disease. While the disease process may involve anywhere of the body, tuberculosis of anterior mediastinum which forming tumor like mass was not recognized commonly. We experienced a surgical case of tuberculous empyema thoracis at anterior mediastinum in 16 year old boy. Preoperatively, he was diagnosed to anterior mediastinal tumor such as teratoma or dermoid cyst by routine study. Operation was performed by midline sternotomy extending over right 4th intercostal space. The mass was elongated football shaped [20x16x15] and markedly adhered to right side of pericardium, upper 8< lower lobe of the right lung. Opening the mass, enormous pus-like material was evacuated and excised segmentally with decortication. Postoperative pathologic diagnosis was tuberculous empyema thoracis and granuloma.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.38 no.10 s.255
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• pp.729-732
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• 2005

A 15-year-old male was admitted with right-sided chest pain and cough for one month. On chest computed tomographic scan, a $10\times15\times16$ em-sized huge mediastinal mass was occupied in the right hemithorax. Radiologically, it seemed that the tumor was severely adhesive on the heart and the superior vena cava. Therefore we decided on chemotherapy and radiotherapy first instead of surgery. The tumor marker was nearly normalized afterwards, but the tumor size was seemed to be bigger on chest tomographic scan. This suggests the growing teratoma syndrome. After the successful resection, he showed symptomatic improvement and is being followed up without any symptoms in an out patient department up to now.

• Korean Journal of Radiology
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.62-78
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• 2023

As the majority of incidentally detected lesions in the anterior mediastinum is small nodules with soft tissue appearance, the differential diagnosis has typically included thymic neoplasm and prevascular lymph node, with benign cyst. Overestimation or misinterpretation of these lesions can lead to unnecessary surgery for ultimately benign conditions. Diagnosing mediastinal cysts using MRI serves as a problem-solving modality in distinguishing between surgical and nonsurgical anterior mediastinal lesions. The pitfalls of MRI evaluation for anterior mediastinal cystic lesions are as follows: first, we acknowledge the limitation of T2-weighted images for evaluating benign cystic lesions. Due to variable contents within benign cystic lesions, such as hemorrhage, T2 signal intensity may be variable. Second, owing to extensive necrosis and cystic changes, the T2 shine-through effect may be seen on diffusion-weighted images (DWI), and small solid portions might be missed on enhanced images. Therefore, both enhancement and DWI with apparent diffusion coefficient values should be considered. An algorithm will be suggested for the diagnostic evaluation of anterior mediastinal cystic lesions, and finally, a management strategy based on MRI features will be suggested.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.535-540
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• 1988

Many mediastinal masses seen radiologically are clinically asymptomatic. Only 55 to 65 percent of such lesions are asymptomatic, and of these many have only nonspecific symptoms by rupture, infection and pressure of surrounding organs. This report presents one case of a mediastinal teratoma which complicated an empyema. The patient was 7-year-old female and chief complaints were fever, left chest pain and general ache. In her past history, lung decortication and drainage procedure under the diagnosis of an empyema were carried out, 5 years ago, but she had not been improved, And so, explothoracotomy was done. At the time of operation, a mass of adult fist size was placed in the left anterior mediastinum and covered with the mediastinal pleura. Extirpation of the tumor and decortication were carried out and the left lung was remained.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.28 no.5
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• pp.530-532
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• 1995

The teratomas seem to be the most common mediastinal tumor in Korea. However, the immature teratomas are the rarest type of these mediastinal teratomas. A case of immature teratoma of the mediastinum occurring in a newborn male is reported. He suffered from severe dyspnea since birth. Simple chest X-ray and chest sonogram revealed huge mass shadow in fight whole lung field. On 6th day after birth, the operation was done and the mass was completely excised. Biopsy showed elements of mature tissues derived from 3 germ cell layers including immature neuronal components. The baby is well without evidence of disease till now.

• Proceedings of the KTCVS Conference
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• 2004.06a
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• pp.168-169
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• 2004

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.30 no.8
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• pp.780-785
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• 1997

Mediastinal tumor had been fascinated by its location on heart, great vessels, esophagus, and nervous tissue, its convenience of surgical treatment and superiority of its operative result. Between January 1989 and June 1995, eighty-seven patients with mediastinal tumor which were treated surgically in the Department of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery, Asan Medical Center, School of Medicine, University of Ulsan. To provide the appropriate surgical management of mediastinal tumor, the demographic data, diagnostic evaluation, clinical presentation, location, size, operative finding and histopathologic distribution were reviewed and we analyzed relativity between invasiveness in chest computed tomographic finding or invasiveness on operative finding and histopathologic invasiveness. The anterosuperior mediastinum was the most commonly involved site of a mediastinal tumor(57%), followed by the posterior mediastinum(35%) and middle mediastinum(8%). The most frequently encountered tumors were thymic neoplasia(31%), followed by primary cyst(22%), neurogenic tumor(22%) and teratoma(10%) in decreasing order of frequency. Histopathologically invasive tumors were present in 17 patients(20%) and its site included anterosuperior mediastinum(16%) and posterior mediastinum(4%). All patients in this study underwent chest CT. In chest CT's finding, 15 patients(17%) showed invasiveness. A total excision of the tumor was performed 80 patients(92%), subtotal excision 6 patients(7%) and biopsy only 1 patient(2%). In operative finding, 14 patients(16%) were suspected invasiveness. The mean size of the tumor was 6.0$\pm$ 3.2cm. In anterosuperior mediastinum, the mean size was 6.2$\pm$3.1cm, in middle mediastinum, it was 3.9$\pm$1.1cm, in posterior mediastinum, it was 5.8$\pm$2.6cm. In malignant tumors, the mean size was 7.3$\pm$4.6cm, in benign tumor, it was 5.5$\pm$2.6cm(P<0.05). Relativity between histopathological invasiveness(17 patients) and invasiveness in chest CT's finding(15 patients) included sensitivity 35%, specificity 87% and predictability 35%, relativity between histopathological invasiveness(17 patients) and invasiveness on operative finding included sensitivity 52%, specificity 93% and predictability 64%. In conclusion, since it was proved that the compatibility of preoperative chest CT findings or operative findings and histopathological invasiveness is quite low, it is considered that wide excision of the mediastinal tumor except cystic lesion including adjacent tissues would yield better postoperative results.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.352-356
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• 1990

A rare benign tumor of the pericardium was found in a 47-year-old woman with epigastric discomfort. She was initially thought to have an anterior mediastinal tumor but was proved to have a massive intrapericardial lipoma without malignant condition. The tumor was measured 26X20X5 cm in size and 2,200 gm in weight. Calcifications and necroses were found around the three pedicles. The tumor was removed easily by dividing the pedicles. With the brief review of literature, we report the case.