Unusual cases of cervical nerves schwannomas: phrenic and vagus nerve involvement

Benign neurogenic tumors (neurilemmoma) arising from the cervical phrenic or vagus nerve are relatively rare. These lesions are benign, asymptomatic and incidentally found. We describe two cases considering different surgical techniques adopted. In the case of phrenic nerve schwannoma we performed a total excision of the tumor including the maternal nerve fiber to prevent tumor recurrence, also in regard to the already present hemidiaphragm palsy. On the other hand in second case, in which the vagus nerve was involved, we proposed a microsurgical approach by monitoring nerve function in order to minimize nerve damage.