A rare cause of intercostal neuralgia: Ancient schwannoma of the chest wall

Abstract

Intercostal neuralgia is a rare condition that causes pain along theintercostal nerves. Neural tumors of the chest mostly arise frommediastinum and only less than 5-10% of primary tumors originatefrom intercostal nerves. These patients are usually asymptomatic.Herein, we report a 42-year-old male patient with severe intercostalneuralgia due to the schwannoma of the chest wall. The patientunderwent surgical resection and his histopathological diagnosiswas a very rare type of schwannoma: ancient schwannoma.Resecting the tumor relieved his pain