Mediastinal tumor resection

When you need surgery for a tumor in the middle of your upper chest, your Aurora doctor or surgeon may call it mediastinal tumor resection.

Mediastinal refers to tissues in the mediastinum – an area in the upper chest that’s between the lungs. The mediastinum includes the heart, blood vessels, nerves and other important tissues.

Resection means the removal of part of something – in this case, a tumor.

About mediastinal tumors

Mediastinal tumors usually occur in people between 30 and 50 years old. These rare tumors can grow from any tissues in the mediastinum, including muscles, nerves, lymph tissues or glands.

Mediastinal tumors in children usually grow in nerves and are benign (noncancerous). In adults, mediastinal tumors are usually malignant (cancerous).

Symptoms of mediastinal tumors

Symptoms of mediastinal tumors are often related to pressure the tumor causes on parts of the body such as the lungs or spine. Children are more likely to have symptoms than adults because tumors take up more room in a child’s smaller mediastinum area.

The most common symptoms are chest pain and weight loss. Other mediastinal tumor symptoms may include:

Diagnosis of mediastinal tumors

Mediastinal masses are often found when a chest X-ray or other imaging test is performed for some other condition. Once they’ve been identified, MRI or CT scans are used to gather more information about the tumor.

If you’re diagnosed with a mediastinal tumor, your doctor will explain the exact location of your tumor and their recommendations for treatment.

Treatment for mediastinal tumors

If a benign tumor isn’t causing serious symptoms, mediastinal mass removal may not be recommended. Instead, the tumor will be monitored at regular intervals. For cancerous tumors, your doctor will recommend some combination of radiation therapy, chemotherapy or surgery.

Any surgery for mediastinal mass removal is serious because of the location near the heart. We’ll use minimally invasive thoracic surgery procedures when possible to ensure less pain, faster healing, smaller incisions and fewer complications from resection of a mediastinal tumor.

Video-assisted thoracic surgery

Video-assisted thoracic surgery (VATS) is a minimally invasive technique that may be used for resection of a mediastinal tumor. It uses a small tube called a thoracoscope which is inserted between ribs. The thoracoscope has a tiny camera that captures images inside the mediastinum. Other tubes that contain tools for the surgery are inserted between the ribs at different points in the chest wall.

Your thoracic surgery team will use images coming from the camera to find the tumor and guide the tools being used to perform a biopsy or remove the tumor.

Open surgery

Sometimes resection of a mediastinal tumor requires open surgery that involves cutting through your sternum or spreading your ribs apart. Open thoracic tumor surgery involves greater risk of infection, longer recovery time and more pain after the surgery. So we only use open surgery when necessary.