Clinical and radiological characteristics of 82 solitary benign peripheral nerve tumours

Keywords:

Peripheral nerve tumour, Peripheral nerve sheath tumour, Schwannoma, Neurofibroma, Haemangioma, Lipoma, Intraneural cyst


Published online: Jun 01 2020

Grégoire Chick, Jan Victor, Nadine Hollevoet

From the La Tour Hospital, Department of Hand Surgery, Geneva, Switzerland and Ghent University Hospital, Department of Orthopaedics, Ghent, Belgium

Abstract

Benign peripheral nerve tumours are rare lesions. The surgical treatment and clinical outcomes depend on the resectability. The aim of this retrospective study was to identify clinical or radiological features that may predict the surgical technique that should be used to improve clinical outcome.

Eighty-two patients were diagnosed with solitary benign peripheral nerve tumours. Fifty-five tumours were surgically resectable, and 27 were nonresectable. Pre-operative magnetic resonance imaging and ultrasound were used, which were predictive of the neural origin of the tumours in 87% (39/45) of cases imaged. In 78% (50/64) of cases imaged, an origin from the nerve sheath (peripheral nerve sheath tumour), or from non-neural elements was possible. However, no imaging or clinical criteria were identified that could determine tumour resectability preoperatively. The diagnosis of solitary peripheral nerve tumour still relies on the macroscopic appearance and definitive histology after epineurotomy.