[Clinical analysis of 53 cases of retroperitoneal schwannoma].

OBJECTIVE

To explore the clinical characteristics, diagnosis and treatment regimens for retroperitoneal schwannoma.

METHODS

Clinicopathological data of 53 retroperitoneal schwannoma patients treated from January 1999 to April 2013 in our hospital were collected and analyzed using SPSS 13.0 statistical software.

RESULTS

Symptoms of the retroperitoneal schwannoma were vague and nonspecific. 12 patients had interrupted abdominal pain, 9 patients had abdominal discomfort, and only 6 patients presented with abdominal mass while 24 patients were detected by health checkup. There were some characteristics but not specific findings in imaging examination such as CT, ultrasonography and MRI, so preoperative diagnosis rate was low with only 9 patients diagnosed as retroperitoneal schwannoma and 21 patients diagnosed as neurogenic tumor. S-100 immunohistochemisty was very important in pathological diagnosis, and the patients with benign retroperitoneal schwannoma got 100% tumor specific 5-year survival after complete excision while the 5-year survival of malignant retroperitoneal schwannoma was only 50.0%.

CONCLUSIONS

Retroperitoneal schwannoma is a rare disease. Most of them are benign tumors, and complete surgical excision is the effective treatment.