Mediastinal lesions in children

Table 1 Prevascular space lesions

Prevascular space (anterior mediastinum)	Common	Less common
Thymus gland	Normal variations, thymic hyperplasia	Thymoma, thymic carcinomas
Lymphoma	Hodgkin and non-hodgkin lymphoma
Germ cell tumor	Mature teratoma	Immature teratoma, seminoma, nonseminoma tumors
Thyroid		Intrathoracic goiter
Lymph node enlargement	Benign etiology	Malignant etiology
Cystic masses	Thymic cyst, lymphatic malformation
Fatty lesions		Thymolipoma and lipoma

Table 2 Visceral space lesions

Visceral space (middle mediastinum)	Common	Less common
Vascular lesions	Vascular ring, pulmonary sling, aneurysm	Pseudoaneurysm
Lymph node enlargement	Benign: Infection	Malignant: Primary or secondary
Foregut duplication cyst	Bronchogenic cyst, esophageal duplication cyst, neuroenteric cyst

Table 3 Paravertebral space lesions

Paravertebral space (posterior mediastinum)	Common	Less common
Sympathetic ganglia tumor	Neuroblastoma, ganglioneuroma, ganglioneuroblastoma
Peripheral nerve sheath tumor		Schwannoma, neurofibroma, malignant peripheral nerve sheath tumor
Non neurogenic tumors	Lymph node enlargement, vascular malformation or aneurysm	Extramedullary hematopoiesis, small round blue cell malignancies