Fifty eight patients of mediastinal tumors were treated at the Department of Thoracic Surgery of Seoul National University Hospital since 1957. Tumors of thymic origin, teratodermoids, carcinomas, neurogenic tumors, malignant lymphomas and bronchogenic cysts were the leading histopathologic tumors in decreasing order of frequency. The less frequently encountered tumors were thyroid tumors, lipoma, liposarcoma and mesenchymal chondrosarcoma. The cases without histologic confirma
tion were classified under the category of histology undetermined.
The ages of the patients ranged from 7 months to 65 years with the average of 36.3 years. Male dominated over female with the ratio of 1.9 : 1. All patients but one had symptoms at the time of admission, which were largely chest symptoms such as chest pain or discomfort, cough and respiratory difficulty. The tumors were located more often in the anterior and superior mediastinum. The malignant tumors were observed in 17 cases among 43 histology-documented patients. And the 11 cases from histology undetermined group were suspected for malignancy on clinical bases.
Thirty nine cases were operated with the total resection of tumors in 34 patients. The irradiation and cancer chemotherapy were introduced in 9 and 6 cases respectively as a combined therapy. The overall results showed the hospital deaths of 3 cases, and 55 patients were discharged from hospital
with cure or improvement in the majority. The deaths of 3 cases at home were reported. The emphasis was placed on the malignant tumors in discussion.
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