Resection of anterior mediastinal ectopic pancreas by right thoracoscopy: A case report

Ectopic pancreas is uncommon in the anterior mediastinum. Herein, a 32-year-old woman presented to our institution for investigation of an abnormal mediastinal shadow on chest computed tomography. The patient underwent complete surgical resection of the anterior mediastinal mass by right thoracoscopy, and the postoperative pathology examination confirmed the diagnosis of ectopic pancreas. There were no clinical signs of pancreatitis. No recurrence or metastasis was observed during a follow-up period of 3 years. English language medical literature was also searched in order to identify other case reports describing this rare condition and identified 17 papers describing 20 cases of anterior mediastinal ectopic pancreas, which were all confirmed at surgery. All clinical characteristics in these cases were reviewed.