Hemangioblastoma of the Adrenal

Abstract

Goldzieher (1) in his monograph on the suprarenal stated that only six cases of hemangioma of that organ had been reported in the literature up to 1929. These hemangiomata resemble the analogous tumors seen in the liver and are usually found in the cortex. The size varies and all the regressive changes may be present: hemorrhage, necrosis, and calcification. A case report by Muller-Stuler (2) in 1933 described a bilateral adrenal tumor in an aged woman which microscopically presented the typical picture of dilated blood vessels. Tavernari (3) subsequently reported a tumor of the right suprarenal gland in a woman which also showed the histologic picture of a benign hemangioma. In 1934 Menon and Annamalai (4) recorded the only example of hemangioblastoma of the adrenal gland. This tumor was found at autopsy in the right adrenal of an adult male who died from amebic dysentery. Microscopically it was hemangioma with small, thin-walled blood spaces and primitive endothelial cells. The tumor cells were fusiform, thin, with long nuclei, and resembled those lining venous spaces. In the solid areas the cells were oval and plump with dark-staining nuclei. In some places the cytoplasm was vacuolated.