A rare case of unicentric plasma cell type Castleman's disease in the mediastinum.

Castleman's disease is a very rare (and thus little-known) lymphoproliferative disorder characterized by lymph node follicular hyperplasia with abnormal interfollicular vascular growth. It can be classified into unicentric and multicentric variants according to its localization, and into three histological types: hyaline-vascular, plasma cell and mixed. We describe the case of a 51 year-old woman who presented with precordial chest pain.

Left paraxiphoidian approach for drainage of pericardial effusions.

Pericardial effusion is one of the frequent complications of malignancies, up to 15-20% of the autopsy specimens showing pericardial or cardiac metastasis. Often the pericardial fluid accumulates in large quantities leading to cardiac tamponade, which can be fatal in the absence of appropriate treatment. The authors present another type of pericardial drainage: the approach is paraxiphoidian, not subxiphoidian or with xiphoid resection.

[Cervico-mediastinal lymphangioma].

The authors are describing three cases of lymphangioma, one at a seven years old child with cervico-mediastinal localization; another at a 39 years old person, situated only in mediastinum, the third is a cervical lymphangioma at a 55 years old subject. The respiratory symptoms are present in the two cases with mediastinal involvement. The patient with cervical localization had no symptoms.