[A case report of ruptured thymic carcinoid].

A scarce case of a rupture of thymic carcinoid followed by hemothorax and mediastinal enlargement was reported. And the mechanism of rupture of thymic carcinoid was discussed comparing to 38 thymic carcinoid cases reported in Japan. A 61-year-old male who had been pointed out mediastinal tumor by chance in a chest X-ray developed a sudden onset of chest pain and dyspnea during an aortography in a hospital transferred to our center because the rupture of the tumor was suspected. Emergency median sternotomy revealed a rupture of a solid tumor with a lot of clot which originally located in the anterior mediastinum but perforated into the right pleural space. This may be the first report of the ruptured thymic carcinoid, so far as we know in Japan. Reviewing the reported cases, the tumor of carcinoid is generally large in size and poorly differentiated in histological study. In more than half of the cases, it is reported that intraparenchymal necrosis or hemorrhage is found. Therefore, it is considered that a thymic carcinoid is a tumor which may result in the rupture, and it should be emphasized that the rupture of the thymic carcinoid which require an emergency treatment is one of the severe complications of the tumor.