A rare diagnosis in the neck during childhood: congenital chondrolipoma

Abstract

Chondrolipomas are mesenchymal tumors that found as mature cartilage tissue in a fat tissue. A 2-year-old boy was seen with a complaint of a mass of the neck. On physical examination of the child, there was a one-centimeter mass above the sternocleidomastoid muscle on the lateral neck. Pathological examination of this mass after excision was reported as chondrolipoma. Chondrolipomas are seen mostly in the breast and in the adult. They are rare tumors of the head and neck area and seen mostly the in oral cavity here. This is the first case of chondrolipoma with this age and localization combination in the literature. Chondrolipoma should therefore also be considered in the differential diagnosis of congenital masses located at lateral cervical area.

Chondrolipoma of the finger in a child: A case study

“…Chondrolipoma is often confused with chondroid lipoma, a subtype of benign adipocytic tumors, because of the terminological similarity. Histologically, chondroid lipomas have tumor cells with central irregular nuclei surrounded by clear vacuolated cytoplasm resembling lipoblasts without mature hyaline cartilages (1,(16)(17)(18)(19)(20)(21). However, in the present case, characteristic features of coexisting areas with lipoma and true hyaline cartilage, with no evidence of lipoblasts, resulted in diagnosis of chondrolipoma.…”

“…The characteristic histopathological feature of chondrolipoma is coexisting mature adipose tissue and hyaline cartilage (1,(11)(12)(13)(14)(15)(16)(17)(18)24). Lipomas typically show high-signal intensity on both T1-and T2-weighted MRI, compared to iso-signal intensity on the fat-suppressed sequence.…”

“…The STIR sequence of MRI examination, which has recently been widely used in musculoskeletal imaging, is a valuable diagnostic tool for chondrolipoma. Despite the difficulty in diagnosis, local recurrence or malignant transformation following resection has never been reported in the literature (11)(12)(13)(14)(15)(16)(17)(18)24), suggesting that the therapeutic strategy for chondrolipoma should be consistent with that of lipoma. Given that, a wait-and-see policy for chondrolipomas should be acceptable, depending on the size and location.…”

“…Sporadic case reports of chondrolipoma in adults exist; however, pediatric presentation is extremely rare (11). Chondrolipomas frequently present in the breast, pharynx, and tongue (12)(13)(14)(15)(16)(17)(18), and there is no previous report of a chondrolipoma arising in the finger.…”