Ouiam Taibi, Hamza Retal, Ismail Neftah, N.Ech-chrif Kettani, Meryem Fikri, Firdaous Touarsa
Journal: Medpeer Publisher
ISSN: 3066-2737
Volume: 3
Issue: 6
Date of Publication: 2026/06/16
Peripheral nerve sheath tumors are uncommon soft-tissue neoplasms that may present as slowly enlarging cervical masses. A 44-year-old woman presented with a progressively enlarging neck mass evolving over one year and associated with electric shock-like pain on palpation. Physical examination revealed a well-circumscribed cervical lesion, while laboratory investigations were unremarkable and showed no evidence of inflammatory syndrome. Magnetic resonance imaging demonstrated a well-defined fusiform mass located within the intermuscular fat plane at the C5 level, measuring 28 × 12 × 16 mm. The lesion was hypointense on T1-weighted images, heterogeneously hyperintense on T2-weighted images, markedly hyperintense on STIR sequences, and exhibited intense homogeneous enhancement following gadolinium administration without restricted diffusion. No cervical lymphadenopathy, surrounding tissue infiltration, or aggressive imaging features were identified. The combination of a fusiform morphology, characteristic signal intensity, avid contrast enhancement, and associated neuropathic symptoms strongly suggested a benign peripheral nerve sheath tumor, most likely a schwannoma. This case highlights the pivotal role of MRI in the characterization of cervical soft-tissue masses and demonstrates how typical imaging findings, correlated with clinical presentation, can support a confident radiological diagnosis of a benign peripheral nerve sheath tumor and help distinguish it from other cervical lesions.
Peripheral nerve sheath tumor; Magnetic resonance imaging; Cervical soft-tissue tumor.
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