Case report

Superior vena cava (SVC) reconstruction using autologous tissue in two cases of differentiated thyroid carcinoma presenting with SVC syndrome

Nobuyuki Wada¹ , Katsuhiko Masudo² , Shohei Hirakawa¹ , Tetsukan Woo¹ , Hiromasa Arai¹ , Nobuyasu Suganuma¹ , Hideyuki Iwaki¹ , Norio Yukawa¹ , Keiichi Uchida² , Kiyotaka Imoto² , Yasushi Rino¹ and Munetaka Masuda¹

¹  Department of Surgery, Yokohama City University Hospital, 3-9 Fukuura, Kanazawa-ku, Yokohama City, Kanagawa 236-0004, Japan

²  Breast and Thyroid Surgery and Cardiovascular Center, Yokohama City University Medical Center, Minami-ku, Yokohama-shi, Kanagawa-ken 232-0024, Japan

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World Journal of Surgical Oncology 2009, 7:75doi:10.1186/1477-7819-7-75

Published:	13 October 2009

Abstract

Herein, we report two extremely rare cases of differentiated thyroid carcinoma (DTC) with extended tumor thrombus or mediastinum lymph node metastasis (LNM) involving the superior vena cava (SVC), causing SVC syndrome. Both of these patients were successfully treated with radical resection and reconstruction of the SVC using autologous tissue instead of an expanded polytetrafluoroethylene (ePTFE) graft. The left brachiocephalic vein was used to reconstruct the SVC in a papillary thyroid carcinoma patient with mediastinum LNM and a pericardial patch was used in a follicular thyroid carcinoma patient with tumor thrombus. Our search of the English-language literature found sporadic reports of SVC resection with reconstruction by vascular graft (ePTFE), interposed between the brachiocephalic vein and the right atrium. However, SVC reconstruction using autologous tissue in thyroid carcinoma has not been reported to date. To our knowledge, this is the first report describing such an unusual technique in DTC patients.