Objectives: Superior vena cava syndrome (SVCS) is an uncommon disease which receives usually bad prognostic. In order to study the prevalence of the different etiologies we have reviewed retrospectively 17 documented cases of SVCS in the last 5 years.
Methods: The range of age was between 43 and 80 years Sex distribution was 16 males and 1 female.
Results: Malignant pathology was by large the most common etiology. Oat cell and squamous cell carcinoma account each for 20%, adenocarcinoma for 18%, undifferenciated carcinoma for 12% and Hodgkin's disease for 6%. Among the benign causes we have found a case of retroesternal goiter.