Acute venous obstruction from a mediastinal cystic lymphangioma.

We report a case of acute symptomatic obstruction of the right innominate vein caused by mediastinal cystic lymphangioma, which was dissected completely free and excised from the surrounding tissues. The patient's postoperative course was uneventful. We stress the need for timely surgical excision of such masses upon diagnosis to prevent life-threatening clinical presentations resulting from sudden increase in the cyst size.