[The importance of preanesthetic evaluation: malignant tumors discovered on preoperative chest radiography, in patients scheduled for operation of benign tumors].

Preanesthetic evaluation is essential for the perioperative period. We report 2 preoperative patients with benign disease, whose preoperative chest radiography revealed intrathoracic malignant tumors. Case 1: A woman in her eighties with vascular necrosis of the femoral head was scheduled for bipolar hip arthroplasty under general anesthesia. On preanesthetic evaluation, widened mediastinum was detected on preoperative chest radiography. Instead of the scheduled operation, she underwent thoracoscopic surgery under general and epidural anesthesia. She was diagnosed with malignant thymoma. Case 2: A woman in her thirties with bilateral oviduct obstruction was scheduled for laparoscopic surgery. On preanesthetic evaluation, right middle lung lesion was detected. She underwent thoracoscopic biopsy under general and epidural anesthesia, and was diagnosed with malignant lymphoma. The result of preanesthetic chest radiography is reported to change the perioperative treatment only in 0.1%; our cases indicate the importance of preanesthetic evaluation of chest radiography in detecting possible underlying disease in the preoperative patient.