Gastrointestinal schwannomas: a rare but important differential diagnosis of mesenchymal tumors of gastrointestinal tract.

Background: Schwannomas of gastrointestinal tract are rare, mostly benign and notably different neoplasms from conventional schwannomas that arise in soft tissue or the central nervous system. These tumors are of clinical importance since they should always be considered in the differential diagnosis of submucosal lesions of gastrointestinal tract.

Methods: Seven patients with a pathologically proven gastrointestinal schwannoma were identified in our series of mesenchymal tumors and reviewed retrospectively.

Posttraumatic transdiaphragmatic intercostal hernia: report of a case and review of the literature.

Intercostal hernias are rare, and usually occur following injuries of the thoracic wall. The scope of this report is to present a case of a 53-year-old obese patient that developed a transdiaphragmatic intercostal hernia. The patient presented with a palpable, sizeable, reducible mass in the right lateral thoracic wall, with evident bowel sounds in the area, 6 months after a motor-vehicle accident.

Surgical treatment for large hepatocellular carcinoma: does size matter?

Despite significant progress in the management of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), patients with large HCC (defined as >10 cm) continue to present a significant challenge. The goal of this paper is to review the existing literature regarding large HCC, with emphasis on identifying the issues and challenges involved in approaching these tumours surgically. A computerized search was made of the Medline database from January 1992 to December 2010.