Five cases of the lymphangioma of the mediastinum in adult.

Mediastinal lymphangioma is rare disease. Above all cavernous type of mediastinal lymphangioma is very rare. We report 5 cases of mediastinal lymphangioma including cavernous type. CT was performed in all and revealed that they were smoothly marginated and cystic. All were surgically resected and specimens were classified pathologically into cystic type (3 cases), cavernous type (1 case) and mixed type of the two (1 case). MRI was performed in the cavernous type and suggested that the mass was lymphangioma because of pathognomonic lesion. Despite preoperative diagnosis of mediastinal lymphangioma is difficult, MRI is able to useful examination. In the follow-ups there has been no recurrence in our series.