Adrenal ganglioneuroma: report of a new case

Abstract

Although adrenal ganglioneuroma (GN) is a rare tumor originating from the neural crest tissue of the sympathetic nervous system, detection of this tumor has increased, as imaging procedures such as ultrasonography (US) and computed tomography (CT) have become prevalent. The clinical presentation for most patients is asymptomatic, and most of those tumors are hormone silent. We describe a case of adrenal GN incidentally diagnosed in a 68-year-old female patient. Physical examination, routine laboratory studies, and hormonal tests were within normal ranges. Abdominal CT and magnetic resonance imaging showed a solid oval tumor approximately 6 x 4 cm in the left adrenal gland without remarkable signs of malignancy. Left adrenalectomy was performed for treatment purposes. Histological diagnosis of the tumor was a ganglioneuroma originating from the adrenal medulla. Adrenal GN occurs rarely in adults and preoperative diagnosis is difficult, especially in asymptomatic cases. It needs careful evaluation and surgical treatment. According to our knowledge, this is the fifth case of adrenal GN in an adult patient from Turkey in English literature.

Laparoscopic resection of primary adrenal ganglioneuroma: A case report and review of the literature

“…The majority of previous studies concerning AGNs have been case reports, and information regarding the pathogenesis of the disease is limited. The establishment of a guideline for clinicians has proven extremely challenging, and therefore, AGNs are often misdiagnosed as a different type of tumor (8,9). The present study describes a large AGN that was incidentally identified in a 58-year-old female.…”

Primary Adrenal Tumors-Five Years Single Centre Experience

“…Histologically two benign subtype of GN-mature and maturing have been noted malignant transformation has also been reported [20][21][22][23].…”

Large Adrenal Ganglioneuroma

“…Because imaging procedures such as ultrasonography (US) and computed tomography (CT) have become prevalent, the number of incidentally identified adrenal GNs has recently increased (4)(5)(6). Adrenal GN is usually hormonally silent, and can therefore asymptomatic even when the size of tumor is large (6)(7)(8)(9).…”