Synovial Lipomatosis of the Glenohumeral Joint.

Shaul Beyth,Ori Safran

doi:10.1155/2016/4170923

Abstract

Synovial lipomatosis (also known as lipoma arborescens) is a rare and benign lesion affecting synovium-lined cavities. It is characterized by hyperplasia of mature fat tissue in the subsynovial layer. Although the most commonly affected site is the knee joint, rarely additional locations such as tendon sheath and other joints are involved. We present a case of synovial lipomatosis of the glenohumeral joint in a 44-year-old man. The clinical data radiological studies and histopathologic results are described, as well as a review of the current literature.

Highlights

Synovial lipomatosis is a rare and benign lesion affecting synovium-lined cavities [1]. It most commonly affects the knee, but in rare cases the hip, elbow, wrist, ankle, tendon sheath, and shoulder. This intra-articular condition of unknown etiology is marked by villous synovial proliferation with replacement of the subsynovial tissue by adipose tissue and mature fat cells [2]
We present a rare case of late posttraumatic synovial lipomatosis of the glenohumeral joint in a 44-year-old chef
Synovial lipomatosis is most commonly a monoarticular condition, several cases of multifocal disease have been reported [12, 13]. Since it was first described by Hoffa [14] in 1904, only several cases of synovial lipomatosis of the shoulder were reported, of which only three were related to the glenohumeral joint [3, 10, 11] and the others were describing subacromial space lesions [15,16,17]

Summary

Introduction

Synovial lipomatosis is a rare and benign lesion affecting synovium-lined cavities [1]. It most commonly affects the knee, but in rare cases the hip, elbow, wrist, ankle, tendon sheath, and shoulder. This intra-articular condition of unknown etiology is marked by villous synovial proliferation with replacement of the subsynovial tissue by adipose tissue and mature fat cells [2]. Several cases with shoulder involvement were reported; only three of them related to the glenohumeral joint while the others involved the subacromial space. We present a rare case of late posttraumatic synovial lipomatosis of the glenohumeral joint in a 44-year-old chef.

Case Presentation

Discussion

Conclusions