Case Report
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2021. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Clin Cases. Oct 16, 2021; 9(29): 8888-8893
Published online Oct 16, 2021. doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v9.i29.8888
Primary intratracheal neurilemmoma in a 10-year-old girl: A case report
Lei Wu, Mi-Cun Sha, Xi-Ling Wu, Jing Bi, Zhi-Min Chen, Ying-Shuo Wang
Lei Wu, Department of Pulmonology and Endoscopy Center, The Children’s Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, National Clinical Research Center for Child Health, Hangzhou 310003, Zhejiang Province, China
Mi-Cun Sha, Department of Pediatrics, Suqian People’s Hospital of Nanjing Drum-Tower Hospital Group, Suqian 223800, Jiangsu Province, China
Xi-Ling Wu, Department of Respiratory Medicine, The Children’s Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, National Clinical Research Center for Child Health, Hangzhou 310002, Zhejiang Province, China
Jing Bi, Department of Otorhinolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery, The Children’s Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, National Clinical Research Center for Child Health, Hangzhou 310000, Zhejiang Province, China
Zhi-Min Chen, Ying-Shuo Wang, Department of Pediatric Pulmonology, The Children’s Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, National Clinical Research Center for Child Health, Hangzhou 310000, Zhejiang Province, China
Author contributions: Wu L, Sha MC and Bi J contributed to manuscript drafting; Wu L and Sha MC reviewed the literature and contributed equally to this work; Wu L and Bi J performed the surgery; Wu XL contributed to revising the manuscript for important intellectual content; All authors issued final approval for the version to be submitted.
Informed consent statement: Informed consent was obtained from the patient for publication of this report and any accompanying images.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare no conflicts of interest for this article.
CARE Checklist (2016) statement: The authors have read the CARE Checklist (2016), and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the CARE Checklist (2016).
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Ying-Shuo Wang, MD, Doctor, Department of Pediatric Pulmonology, The Children’s Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, National Clinical Research Center for Child Health, No. 3333 Binsheng Road, Hangzhou 310052, Zhejiang Province, China. wangyingshuo@zju.edu.cn
Received: June 8, 2021
Peer-review started: June 8, 2021
First decision: June 25, 2021
Revised: July 8, 2021
Accepted: August 4, 2021
Article in press: August 4, 2021
Published online: October 16, 2021
Processing time: 129 Days and 3.5 Hours
Abstract
BACKGROUND

Tracheal tumors are relatively rare in adults and uncommon in children. Tracheal neurilemmoma is a rare condition in adults that usually affects middle-aged people, but it can also occur in children. Because the clinical presentation is nonspecific and insidious, diagnosis is often delayed. The most common symptoms in these patients are stridor or wheezing (especially positional) and cough. A few patients are misdiagnosed and mistakenly treated for asthma.

CASE SUMMARY

A 10-year-old girl was admitted to our unit with a 2-mo history of recurrent cough, dyspnea, and tachypnea. Her condition was more severe after exercise. Her symptoms progressed despite treatment with inhaled fluticasone/salmeterol. Flexible electronic laryngoscopy showed a red, smooth, and round mushroom-shaped mass in the trachea, about 1 cm below the vocal cords. The surface of the mass was covered with several small and discontinuous blood vessels. About 90% of the tracheal lumen was occupied by the mass. A multidisciplinary operation was performed. The surgically resected mass was diagnosed as benign neurilemmoma by immunohistochemical analysis.

CONCLUSION

Intratracheal neurilemmoma is fairly rare in children. The main symptoms include coughing, wheezing, and dyspnea. The tumor’s size, location, and degree of intratracheal and extratracheal invasion can be measured by chest computed tomography. The main treatment strategies used for tracheal neurilemmoma are surgical resection and endoscopic excision. Long-term follow-up is warranted for the evaluation of outcomes and complications.

Keywords: Airway obstruction; Trachea; Neurilemmoma; Therapeutic bronchoscopy; Child; Case report

Core Tip: Tracheal neurilemmoma is a rare condition in children. Because the clinical presentation is nonspecific and insidious, diagnosis is often delayed. This case report describes a 10-year-old girl with tracheal neurilemmoma.