Introduction
Castleman disease (CD) is a rare lymphoproliferative disorder of uncertain etiology, broadly classified as uncentric CD (UCD) and multicentric CD (MCD). Although thorax is the most common site of UCD, but overall CD a very rare cause of an intrathoracic mass and is usually overlooked as a differential diagnosis of an intrathoracic or mediastinal mass.1
Localised Castleman disease of the thorax is known to be quite hypervascular and in close proximity to adjacent organs or great vessels (pulmonary artery or aorta) and often densely adherent to these surrounding structures.2,3 When overlooked, such tumours may pose surgical challenge (incomplete resection or profuse bleeding) and may lead to adverse outcome. Hence, identifying Castleman disease of thorax preoperatively and careful surgical planning may provide good outcome post-operatively.
We present a case of posterior mediastinal mass detected incidentally in a 53-year old female that was resected successfully via left posterior-lateral thoracotomy with a preliminary possibility of neurogenic tumour/ inflammatory myofibroblastic masss, but was finally diagnosed on histopathology of surgically resected mass as CD, hyaline vascular variant (HVV).