Clinical and pathological characteristics of adrenal lipomatous tumors

Abstract

Objective To evaluate the clinical, biochemical and pathological characteristics of the adrenal lipomatous tumors(ALT). Methods Fifty-one adrenal tumor cases confirmed originated from adipose tissue by pathology were retrospectively analyzed. They were 24 males and 27 females with average age of (52.81±10.23)ys. There were 27 cases on the left, 22 cases on the right and 2 bilateral cases. Results In 51 cases of ALT, 45 cases were myelolipoma (88.2%), 2 cases were teratoma (3.9%), 2 cases were angioleiomyolipoma (3.9%), 1 case was lipoma(2.0%), and 1 case was liposarcoma(2.0%). The sizes of the tumors were between 4.0 cm×3.5 cm to 28.6 cm × 16.7 cm. The weights of tumor were from 25 g to 586 g. The lab examination shows that 1 case with high serum aldosterone, 1 case with high serum cortisol, 1 case with high serum androgen and 1 case with severe anemia. Forty-four cases(86.3%) were definitely diagnosed by pre-operative imaging examina-tion; all of 51 cases(100%) were diagnosed by light mirror examination. Conclusions ALT is com-monly composed of myelolipoma, including lipoma, angioleiomyolipoma, teratoma and liposarcoma. Some patients in ALT are manifested with adenoma of aldosteronism, adenoma of Cushing syndrome or hyperandrogenemia. Most of the ALT can be diagnosed by imaging examination before operation.The ALT patients with large or symptomatic adrenal lipomatous lesions or preoperatively diagnosed teratoma should be given surgical treatment. Key words: Myelolipoma; Adrenal neoplasms; Angioleiomyolipoma; Teratoma