Synovial lipoma arborescens of the hip

Abstract

Lipoma arborescens is a rare intra-articular tumor usually found in the knee joint. The reported lesion involved the inferomedial recess of the right hip synovium, in a 29-year-old male. The clinical findings were nonspecific. Both arthrography and computerized tomography (CT) of the hip disclosed the tumor which, on CT examination, showed an inhomogeneous low density, due to its fat content. The final diagnosis was given by histological examination of the resected mass. No recurrence was observed after one year. The long-term prognosis probably depends more on the underlying disorder of the joint than on the lipoma itself.

MR imaging of synovial tumors and tumor-like lesions

“…This condition is more common in men than in women, and most affected patients are in the fifth to sixth decades of life. It is usually monoarticular, occurring most frequently in the knee, particularly in the suprapatellar pouch [16,17,18,19,20,21,22,23], although it has also been sporadically reported in other locations, including the glenohumeral joint [24], subdeltoid bursa [25,26], elbow [27], wrist [28], hip [21,29,30], and ankle [31]. Bilateral involvement of the knees, wrists, ankles, and hips has also been observed [21].…”

“…Affected patients usually report a long-standing, slowly progressive swelling of the joint with recurrent effusions, and variable pain and limitation of motion [16,17,18,19,20,21,22,23,24,25,26,27,28,29,30,31]. Most cases appear to arise de novo, although some have been found in association with osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, or trauma.…”

Lipoma arborescens of the knee: MR demonstration.

“…Fourteen cases of hipoma arborescens have been described [1][2][3][4][5]. We report the MR findings associated with a case of hipoma arborescens of the knee.…”

Bilateral lipoma arborescens associated with early osteoarthritis

“…The peak age incidence for lipoma arborescens is between the third and fifth decades; however, the disease is also relatively common in children [11]. The knee is the joint most often involved [12,13]; however, involvement of other joints (e.g., shoulder, wrist, hip, and ankle) has also been reported [14,15]. Lipoma arborescens is typically described as a unilateral disease.…”