Intrathoracic tumors arising from the vagus nerve. Review of resected tumors in Japan.

Nineteen surgically treated intrathoracic vagus nerve tumors (16 neurilemmomas, 3 neurofibromas), including three treated by the authors, were reviewed. Tumor resection with vagus nerve amputation was performed in 14 and intracapsular excision without nerve amputation in 3 of the 17 adequately recorded cases. The location of vagus nerve tumor was the left upper mediastinum in 11 patients, almost all of whom were hoarse postoperatively due to sacrifice of the recurrent laryngeal nerve.