Lower posterior mediastinal benign schwannoma successfully resected with retroperitoneoscopy using a transdiaphragmatic approach: A case report

Lower posterior mediastinal tumors are traditionally excised by conventional thoracotomy or thoracoscopic approaches; however, use of the transdiaphragmatic retroperitoneoscopic approach for these tumors has rarely been reported. Herein, we report a case of a left lower posterior mediastinal paravertebral benign schwannoma in an adult male that was successfully treated with transdiaphragmatic retroperitoneoscopic surgery. The patient presented with no symptoms but had noticed a lesion in the left lower posterior mediastinum two months prior. He underwent transdiaphragmatic retroperitoneoscopic surgery with total resection of the mediastinal mass. To the best of our knowledge, this is the most detailed and challenging case of transdiaphragmatic retroperitoneoscopic surgery to treat a schwannoma in the left lower posterior mediastinum reported to date.