Acute and Chronic Mediastinitis

Idiopathic fibrosis of mediastinum: a discussion of three cases and review of the literature.

“…The first major review of fibrosis of the mediastinum was by Osler (1903) in a paper on superior vena caval obstruction and covering a period of 50 years. Since Osler's study there have been several reviews of large series of cases, including those of Knox (1925), Keefer (1938), Barrett (1958), and Hache et al (1962). Probably the early descriptions included cases due to syphilis and tuberculosis, but with the advent of more precise diagnostic methods a group of patients was recognised in which the fibrosis was not due to either of these diseases.…”

“…The clinical syndrome of superior vena caval obstruction was for many years regarded as the hallmark of mediastinal fibrosis, and earlier reports of this condition are in reviews of the causes of superior vena caval obstruction (Osler, 1903;Knox, 1925;Keefer, 1938). While this is still a major clinical feature, the description of cases of involvement of 86 other mediastinal structures-for example, pulmonary artery (Nelson et al, 1965), pulmonary vein (Bindelglass and Trubowitz, 1958), lung (Benfield et al, 1962), bronchus and oesophagus (Hache et al, 1962), and coronary artery (Reed and Stinely, 1959) -have highlighted the variability of clinical presentation.…”

A Case Series and Review of Histoplasmosis Infection in the Neck

“…5 When pus accumulates in the anterior mediastinum, it may present at the suprasternal notch or at the border of the SCM, as seen with tuberculosis and actinomycosis infections. 10 Therefore, we propose histoplasmosis spread from the lung parenchyma to mediastinal nodes and then to cervical nodes via lymphatics or tissue planes.…”