Benign diaphragmatic neurilemmoma mimicking a left adrenal cyst

Abstract

Neurilemmomas are benign, slow growing, encapsulated nerve sheath tumor. These tumors arise from the schwann cells of neural crest. Neurilemmomas can manifest in various form according to site, extent and severity of involvement of organ. Diaphragmatic neurilemmomas are very unusual and even difficult to diagnose on preoperative imaging. We will report a case of 39 year old male, who presented with complaints of occasional left flank pain for one year and subsequently investigated, which showed left adrenal cyst with haemorrhagic fluid content. On the contrary, when surgical exploration of the lesion was done, it showed a cyst within the diaphragm, completely separated from left kidney and left adrenal with haemorrhagic content in situ. Histopathological examination of the lesion showed it to be a benign neurilemmoma with cystic degeneration. Post opearatively patient did well. We believe that this is the first case report, which is addressing such kind of initial manifestation of diaphragmatic neurilemmomas.