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Review
. 2008 Jul 4:6:72.
doi: 10.1186/1477-7819-6-72.

Simultaneous adrenal and extra-adrenal myelolipoma - an uncommon incident: case report and review of the literature

Derek Zieker  1 , Ingmar Königsrainer, Stephan Miller, Ulrich Vogel, Karl Sotlar, Wolfgang Steurer, Alfred Königsrainer, Thorsten G Lehmann
Affiliations
Review

Simultaneous adrenal and extra-adrenal myelolipoma - an uncommon incident: case report and review of the literature

Derek Zieker et al. World J Surg Oncol. .

Abstract

Background: Extra-adrenal myelolipomas are rare benign tumours. Other soft tissue tumours such as well-differentiated liposarcomas appear morphological almost identical. Preoperative imaging and especially biopsy are important tools to diagnose these lesions.

Case presentation: We report a very seldom case of a simultaneous myelolipoma of the adrenal gland in association with an extra-adrenal myelolipoma in an 75-year-old man. With a review of the literature we describe and discuss the aetiology, differential diagnosis and treatment of patients with respect to adrenal and extra-adrenal lesions.

Conclusion: The appearance of a simultaneous adrenal and extra-adrenal myelolipoma is a rare incident. We conclude that such lesions should be considered in the differential diagnosis of a fat-containing tumour in the retroperitoneal tissue/compartment.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
CT imaging of the abdomen. A: Coronal abdominal CT scan detected two fat-containing masses in the adrenal gland and lateral of the psoas muscle inferior to the right kidney. Both lesions appeared identical in the CT imaging and were at first consistent with a well-differentiated liposarcoma. Intra-operative biopsy followed by rapid section revealed a simultaneous adrenal and extra-adrenal myelolipoma. B and C: Further CT images of the extra-adrenal/retorperitoneal myelolipoma.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Myelolipoma. A: Adrenal gland with intraparenchymal myelolipoma (Hematoxylin-Eosin, ×12.5) ARG = adrenal gland; ML = myelolipoma. B: Adrenal cortical cells with foamy cytoplasm, mature adipose tissue and bone marrow cells (Hematoxylin-Eosin, ×200). C: Mature adipose tissue and bone marrow cells (Naphthol-AS-D chloroacetate esterase (Leder), ×400); E = erythroid; M = myeloid (red); MK = megakaryocyte. D: Mature adipose tissue and bone marrow cells (Immunohistochemistry, anti-Glycophorin-A, Diaminobenzidine (DAB), ×400); E = erythroid (brown); M = myeloid; MK = megakaryocyte.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

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