Endometriosis of the vastus lateralis muscle

Abstract

We report an unusual case of a woman who sought medical attention for a painful mass within her anterolateral left thigh. The patient's symptoms waxed and waned with her menses. Magnetic resonance imaging revealed a 3 cm mass isointense to muscle and surrounded by a rim of decreased signal intensity on T1-weighted images. T2-weighted images with fat saturation revealed a low signal intensity mass with a surrounding rind of high signal intensity edema. Based on its magnetic resonance imaging characteristics, the lesion was initially thought to represent the sequela of prior trauma or perhaps a small fibrous tumor. An excisional biopsy of the mass, however, revealed endometrial tissue, and a pathologic diagnosis of intramuscular endometriosis was rendered.

Endometriosis in the deltoid muscle: a case report

“…Previous cases of extrapelvic endometrioses have been successfully managed with complete surgical excision [13,[16][17][18]. Supporting this notion, our case also yielded an excellent clinical result by complete resection.…”

“…Among them, involvement of extremities is rare and almost all cases of extremity endometriosis occur in the lower extremities [3,5,7,[11][12][13][15][16][17][18]. Some authors have theorized that this is because the endometrial cells pass into the lower extremities through the round ligament, which leads to the inguinal canal [3,7,18].…”

“…Extrapelvic endometriosis is less common and has been documented in various regions, including the urinary tract, intestinal tract, surgical scar, pulmonary region, spinal cord, peripheral nervous system, and skeletal muscle [2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18]. Among them, involvement of extremities is rare and almost all cases of extremity endometriosis occur in the lower extremities [3,5,7,[11][12][13][15][16][17][18].…”

Endometriosis of the soleus and gastrocnemius muscles

“…The prevalence of pelvic endometriosis is 6%-10% among women of reproductive age (1), but extrapelvic disease is less common. Muscular endometriosis is a rare condition, and few cases without surgical implantation have been identified in the literature (2)(3)(4)(5)(6). The present case report documents a rare case of endometriosis of the soleus and gastrocnemius muscles associated with moderate dysmenorrhea.…”

Case Report: Extrapelvic Endometriosis in the Medial Thigh

“…Preoperative investigation of musculoskeletal endometriosis has generally involved a combination of surgical biopsy and imaging. Although preoperative diagnosis is helpful, core biopsy has not always been conclusive in previously described cases (3,4). Furthermore, MR imaging appearance of musculoskeletal endometriosis is variable as endometriosis tissue undergoes cyclic degeneration, and proliferation and appearance may change based on lesion age.…”