Spontaneous detachment of benign mesothelioma into the pleural space and removal during pleuroscopy.

Benign pleural mesothelioma is a rare tumor which is usually diagnosed by thoracotomy in a patient with an intra-thoracic mass of uncertain origin. We report a case in which both diagnosis and therapy of a small, peripheral coin-lesion were achieved through thoracoscopy. The latter was performed following the observation that the tumor moved freely in the pleural space, because of an incidental pneumothorax.