Video-assisted thoracoscopy in single-stage resection of a para-aortic posterior mediastinal dumbbell tumor.

We report the successful single-stage thoracoscopic resection of a neurogenic mediastinal dumbbell tumor close to the aortic arch, using a combined posterior approach. A 63-year-old asymptomatic male was referred to our hospital for evaluation of an abnormal round shadow in the left thoracic cavity on a chest radiograph. He was diagnosed to have an intrathoracic and intraspinal neurogenic dumbbell-shaped tumor close to the aortic arch. Surgery combined both a laminectomy and thoracoscopic tumor resection. The tumor was lysed as deeply as possible via a posterior approach, then with the patient in the right lateral position the pleura around the tumor on the aortic side was clipped and cauterized thorocoscopically, freeing the tumor completely and allowing it to be extracted in toto.