Surgical treatment of primary Tracheal Carcinoma in a Patient with Recklinghausen’s disease(Neurofibromatosis type 1)

Abstract

This is the case of a 56-year-old man with signififi cant history of neurofifi bromatosis and smoking who pre-sented with respiratory distress and workup revealed intra-tracheal mass. Even though the expectation was the tracheal tumor to be benign the pathology revealed malignancy. Notably, pulmonary nodules were at fifi rst thought to be benign tumors, yet workup revealed these were metastatic. Presence of two rare conditions can coexist and it is important for the clinicians to keep an open mind while managing patients with newly found mass who have history of benign tumors. This case also represents good learning opportunity for surgical management of intratracheal tumor when intubation is a challenge