Almost all mediastinal teratomas are found in the anterior mediastinum. We describe a case of a 41-day-old baby girl who had teratoma in the posterior mediastinum. She presented at the age of 6 days with the problem of progressive jaundice and was found to have septicaemia. During septic screening, chest X-ray revealed a mass in the right mediastinum. Ultrasound and CT-scan of the chest showed a multiloculated mass at the right posterior mediastinum. Fine needle aspiration biopsy of the mass confirmed a teratoma.
Study site: Hospital Universiti Sains Malaysia (HUSM), Kelantan, Malaysia
A neonate with severe respiratory distress due to a benign mediastinal teratoma (MT) is reported. Despite early and easy surgical excision of the tumor, the child died due to poor cardiac function. Only ten cases of MT in neonates have been reported in the literature so far. While the tumor has been known to interfere with lung development in utero, postnatal myocardial dysfunction due to poor heart development has not been previously documented.