Ancient Schwannoma of Radial Nerve: A Report of Two Cases

Ancient schwannoma is a rare variant of schwannoma associated with a longstanding course. They differ from classical schwannomas in the long duration for this subtype of schwannoma to develop and also by demonstrating haemorrhagic and degenerative changes with nuclear atypia. It is because of these histologic hallmarks that they are frequently misdiagnosed as malignant tumours. They usually involve the major nerves of flexor surfaces in upper extremity such as the ulnar and median nerve but schwannomas of the radial nerve are a rare entity. We report two cases of ancient schwannoma involving the radial nerve at mid arm and dorsum of the hand. The differential diagnoses included atypical soft tissue sarcomas and tumours of neural origin. Imaging and histopathology are crucial in diagnoses of these tumours.