The Peripheral Manifestations of the Specific Nerve Sheath Tumor (Neurilemoma)

Abstract

Introduction It is the purpose of this paper to discuss the clinical and pathological facts which have accumulated about the specific peripheral nerve sheath tumors. It has seemed worth while to do this because, although a great deal is known about this specific tumor type when it is found attached to the spinal nerve roots and to the intracranial portions of the cranial nerves, its appearance elsewhere in the body has not been studied in a comprehensive fashion. A great many articles have been written about individual tumors or small groups of them, but this information has not been synthesized. The impression exists that they are rare, but it seems as if this must be simply because they frequently go unrecognized. When it is realized that 52 tumors in 50 new cases are being reported in this paper, and that only 194 adequately described additional cases could be collected from the literature of the past hundred years, the cogency of this statement will be appreciated.