Life-threatening mediastinal teratoma in a neonate

This report describes a newborn with a large mediastinal teratoma (MT) pres enting with severe respiratory distress (RD) at birth. At operation, there was no space for dissection because the huge cystic and solid tumor complet ely occupied the left hemithorax. After evacuation of the cystic component, the tumor was removed successfully. To our knowledge, only 16 newborn infa nts with MT presenting with RD have been reported. Operative morbidities oc curred in one-half of the cases. We have reviewed the literature to discuss the potential risks of this entity.