The purpose of this study was to report the ultrasonographic findings and clinical features of schwannoma of the hand and wrist.

20 patients, mean age of 36 and female prevalence, has been valued to study masses of wrists and hands. This sample has been selected to underwenthigh-resolution ultrasonography with a high frequency transducer (17Mhz)using a Philips IU22. At the time of presentation 4 of 20 complain neuralgic symptoms. Sonography direct the diagnosis: it showed a solid mass, anechoic, well defined and fusiform shaped with no flow at the color-Doppler.The nerve-tumor position and nerve-tumor transition were peculiar:it waseccentric and the nerve-tumor transition was clearly defined. Rarelythe tumor...

Differentiation between schwannomas and neurofibromas is known to be difficult on the basis of sonographic findings, and can lead to misdiagnosis (3). For this reason, particular attention has to be payed on some aspects as well-defined margins, a homogeneous hypoechoic appearance, a round to oval shape. In the analysis of neurofibroma is not possible to identify the entering and exiting nerves, and the presence of a target sign (4). Vascularization is usually more important in schwannoma than in neurofibroma, but on clinical practice, is hard...

Schwannoma is the most common benign tumor of peripheral nerves but represents only 5% of all soft tissue tumors, with the incidence of schwannoma of the hand and wrist reported as low as 1% (6). The vast majority (95%) of neurofibromas are solitary and are not associated with neurofibromatosis 1 (von Recklinghausen disease) or neurofibromatosis 3 (7). Generally, schwannoma is known to be a slowly enlarging painless mass close to a peripheral nerve. It is usually asymptomatic, but it can also present with pain, paresthesia,...

Doriana Vergara, Department of Advanced Biomedical Sciences, University “Federico II”Naples,Italy

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