Angiomyolipoma of the left adrenal gland: a case report and literature review

Abstract

Angiomyolipoma (AML) is apparent a part of mesenchymal tumor arising from perivascular epithelioid cell origin. AML is formed of blood vessels, spindle and epithelioid cells, and mature adipocytes.Adrenal AML is very rare. Indeed, only 21 cases of adrenal AML have been reported in the English-language literature. In these cases, patients were usually asymptomatic, and AML was often examined passingly during a health checkup or a common abdominal ultrasound (US) or a computed tomography (CT) examination for a other unrelated disease. This is a case report of adrenal AML in a 40-year-old male who presented with no clinical manifestations. Some 3 months ago, a first abdominal routine CT scan revealed a left adrenal mass. Three months later, a routine US showed a hypoechoic area of 21 mm × 15 mm in the left adrenal gland. A retroperitoneoscopic resection of the left adrenal gland tumor was then performed. A postoperative histopathology report confirmed a benign AML composed of blood vessels, smooth muscle, and mature adipose tissue. The patient was discharged without event. Due to the paucity of the literature on this subject, more clinical and imaging information about this disease is necessary for diagnosis, differential diagnosis, and treatment. In this paper, we present a complete case report, including the clinical presentation, imaging, treatment, and conduct a review of the relevant literature.

Clinical Characteristics of Adrenal Hemangioma

“…The appearance of angiomyolipoma is indistinguishable from that of adrenal myelolipoma. Due to the diverse morphology of angiomyolipoma on imaging, it is difficult to confirm the diagnosis, and if the tumor is large and heterogeneous, imaging may give a false impression of malignancy [ 16 , 17 ].…”