Retroperitoneal schwannoma — diagnostic riddle for the surgeon

Summary. Retroperitoneal schwannoma — rare, mostly benign tumor, growing from the peripheral nerve sheath. Retroperitoneal localization of schwannomas occur in 1–3% of all cases at the same time from all retroperitoneal tumors only 1% are schwannomas. This pathology is interesting for the surgeon because of the complexity of her diagnosis at the preoperative stage. The difficulty of its diagnosis is primarily due to the anatomical features of the retroperitoneal space. The extensiveness and its elasticity allow the tumor for a long time did not manifest itself clinically. That’s why, at the time of detection tumor usually reaches a considerable size. The close proximity of the great vessels and their branches makes it difficult to perform a biopsy of the tumor for its histological verification and determination of the treatment. This work presents a clinical case of surgical treatment of schwannoma aortocaval space and a brief overview of the issue. Radical removal of the tumor is the only method of the schvannomas treatment.