Face and Neck Swelling Hint at a Daunting Diagnosis

By Mohammed Hassan-Ali, MSC & Ahmed Raziuddin, MDA 56-year-old black man presented to the ED complaining of face and neck swelling. An initial history was difficult to obtain because the patient did not speak English fluently and had slurred speech. Symptoms started approximately a week earlier when the patient was at his nursing home. He denied dysphagia or odynophagia, he had no rashes, pruritus, dyspnea, or peripheral edema, his face was flushed, and he had visibly-engorged neck veins. He noticed that his tongue was mildly swollen, so he took Benadryl for a week with no relief. The patient said he believed that the symptoms might have been because a nurse gave him an incorrect medication at the nursing home. He had been a pack-a-day smoker for 30 years, and had a history of schizoaffective disorder, bipolar disorder with psychotic features, and GERD.​​ A CBC with differential, PT, PTT, BMP, and UA were all within normal limits. A chest x-ray confirmed a large mediastinal mass, and a soft tissue neck CT scan with contrast found a large mass in the upper mediastinum with extensive adenopathy in the base of the right side of his neck on the right, a right lobe thyroid mass, and occlusion of the superior vena cava and left subclavian vein. The report suggested that the findings were consistent with aggressive lymphoma or lung cancer.The patient was admitted to the hospital with a scheduled emergent biopsy of the neck mass/lymph nodes. He was diagnosed with superior ve...
Source: The Case Files - Category: Emergency Medicine Tags: Blog Posts Source Type: research