Laparoscopic resection of a gastric schwannoma: A case report

INTRODUCTION: Mesenchymal tumors of the gastrointestinal tract are a group spindle cell tumors which include gastrointestinal stromal tumors, leiomyomas, leiomyosarcomas and schwannomas (Nishida and Hirota, 2000). Schwannomas generally present as a slow and asymptomatic growing mass in the gastrointestinal tract typically arising in the gastric submucosa accounting for up to 0.2% of gastric tumors (Melvin and Wilkinson, 1993; Sarlomo-Rikala M, Miettinen, 1995). TREATMENT: with negative surgical margin resection (as approached in this case) is considered the standard treatment. PRESENTATION OF CASE: A 60-year-old woman was referred to our general surgery service for dyspepsia. During her evaluation a gastric mass was incidentally found on upper GI endoscopy which showed a submucosal exophytic neoplasm at the gastric antrum. The patient was discharged following an uneventful recovery from a successful surgical laparoscopic tumor resection. DISCUSSION: Schwannomas are benign neurogenic tumors that originate from Schwann cells. They commonly occur in the head and neck but are rare in the GI tract (Menno et al., 2010). The differential diagnosis between gastric schwannomas and GISTs can be difficult in the preoperative assessment. With the advent of immunohistochemical staining techniques it is now possible to make a differential diagnosis based on their distinctive immunophenotypes. Gastric schwannomas are consistently positive for S-100 protein and negative for c-kit; conversely, 95% of GISTs are positive for c-kit and negative for S-100 protein in up to 98 to 99% of the cases. CONCLUSION: Gastric schwannomas should be included in the differential diagnosis of any gastric submucosal mass. Negative margin resection as seen with this patient is the standard surgical treatment as there is low malignant transformation potential.