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Castleman's disease(CD) is an uncommon lymph node syndrome, generally located in mediastinum side, rarely systemic. Two histhologic types are described: the more common, termed the hyaline-vascular type, generally asymptomatic, and the second termed plasma cell type, with systemic manifestations of the disease, like fever, anemia and weight loss. The authors present a case of a young man with Castleman's disease, treated by prednisone without reduction of the adenopathy, and thus successfully operated, and discuss about aetiopathogenic theories and treatment of this disease.

The authors report 4 cases of patients with benign fibrous mesothelioma of the pleura, an extremely rare pathology (not more than 500 cases reported to date in the literature), and discuss biological behaviour, diagnosis and surgical treatment. Benign fibrous mesothelioma is generally diagnosed by chance during chest x-ray given that it is paucisymptomatic; diagnostic procedures include thoracic CT (which may be supplemented by transthoracic needle biopsy) and bronchoscopy. Treatment is surgical and consists of exeresis of the neoplasia; prognosis is excellent and cases are reported in the literature of 24-year follow-up without recurrence. Lastly, the authors underline the importance of modern immunohistochemical techniques which help the surgeon to formulate a precise diagnosis and to differentiate benign fibrous mesothelioma.

Askin's tumour is a rare malignant small cell neoplasia of the thoracic wall; it most often effects females during childhood and is characterised by limited survival. The authors report a recent case of Askin's tumour in a young adult male. The case was characterised by multiple recidivation but a long survival. The authors discuss its diagnosis and treatment.

The paper reports the series of post-traumatic hernias of the diaphragm observed during the period between 1954 and June 1992. This group of 77 patients (59 males and 18 females) were aged between 6 and 75 years old. Both acute and chronic hernias were reported; in 60 cases the diaphragmatic lesion was on the left, in 9 cases on the right, and there were 8 cases of laceration to both hemidiaphragms. The most frequently herniated organ was the stomach, followed by the transverse colon and spleen. With regard to the access route used, the authors draw attention to the fact that during the first twenty years of the series thoracotomies were prevalently used, whereas during the last decade laparotomy has been used in cases of early post-traumatic hernia, thoracotomy in cases of chronic post-traumatic hernia or if there is suspected damage to organs and intrathoracic structures.

Three recently observed cases of Castleman's tumour are described. A brief summary of the clinical histories, themselves of little significance, the histological, diagnostic and therapeutic aspects of the disease are examined. The series is shown to be fully in line with those reported in the literature, and support is given to the view that the tumour is of inflammatory origin.