[Tumors of the anterior mediastinum--surgical treatment and prognosis].

This paper reports on 96 mediastinal tumors situated exclusively or mainly in the anterior mediastinum. Early surgical intervention is always indicated to establish the diagnosis and to ensure as radical a tumor resection as possible. The surgical approach depends on the tumor size and localization and is made either by sternotomy or thoracotomy. The prognosis depends on the histological classification of the tumors: out of 30 patients with lymphomas, 19 survived as compared to 10 out of 21 patients with thymoma and 15 out of 18 patients with mesenchymal tumors. Of 16 patients with endothoracic and retrosternal goiters, none died of a cause connected with the goiter and nine out of 11 patients with mesodermal tumors survived. The indication for surgery should be established extensively, since one third of the tumors is malignant and the surgical lethality (1.8%) is very low.