Advanced thyroid cancer with upper mediastinal lymph node metastasis is not rare in the clinical setting. For patients with severe metastasis, a thoracocervical incision is usually performed for dissection of lymph nodes. However, the difficult operation of three-port thoracoscopy to support performance of a cervical incision in the treatment of upper mediastinal lymph node metastasis has rarely been reported to date. We herein describe a case involving the treatment of thyroid cancer with upper mediastinal lymph node metastasis. The lymph node metastasis was severe, closely adhered to the innominate vein, and fused into a mass. Thoracoscopy with a cervical incision was performed and proved to be a highly difficult surgical maneuver. The patient recovered quickly after the operation. Repeat computed tomography showed no swollen metastatic lymph nodes, indicating that the dissection was thorough. Thoracoscopy with a neck incision is more difficult than conventional longitudinal split sternotomy in the treatment of upper mediastinal lymph node metastasis, but its advantages are less severe trauma and faster recovery. This procedure may be performed by surgeons with proficient skill in cervical surgery and thoracoscopy techniques.

This current report presents a rare case of carpal tunnel syndrome with chronic bursitis that was treated successfully by open surgery. A 53-year-old female patient that had begun to experience swelling, pain and limited flexion activity of the left wrist 1 year previously presented because of a deterioration in her condition and numbness of the thumb, index finger and middle finger in the previous 2 months without any treatment. The diagnosis of bursitis should be based on clinical symptoms and signs, combined with colour ultrasonography, magnetic resonance imaging, arthroscopy and arthrography. Bursitis should be differentiated from arthritis, tendonitis, fracture and neoplasm, but complete exclusion depends on the postoperative pathological results. In this current case, the histopathological findings were consistent with bursitis without malignancy. After surgery, the patient was instructed to perform rehabilitation exercises for the wrist joint. These exercises included passive activity 3 days after surgery and active activity 1 week after surgery. There was also regular follow-up every 3 months. The patient recovered well and reported that the pain and numbness that she described preoperatively had been resolved.