International Surgery Journal | July 2019 | Vol 6 | Issue 7 Page 2605
International Surgery Journal
Oberoi A et al. Int Surg J. 2019 Jul;6(7):2605-2608
http://www.ijsurgery.com
pISSN 2349-3305 | eISSN 2349-2902
Case Report
Management of giant adrenal schwannoma
Ajit Oberoi
1
, Kamal Kataria
1
*, Om Prakash
1
, Rajni Yadav
2
, Ankur Goyal
3
INTRODUCTION
Adrenal incidentaloma (AI) has a prevalence of 4-6% in
general population.
1
Schwannoma is a rare differential of
adrenal incidentaloma with scarce literature available at
present. They are slow growing nerve sheath tumours
with no evidence of hormone secretion. Patient usually
present with vague abdominal complaints. Management
includes adrenalectomy via open or minimal invasive
approach. Diagnosis is confirmed on histopathology and
immunohistochemistry (IHC).
2
Herein we describe a case
of a very large non-secreting adrenal mass detected
incidentally which had large area of contact with renal
vessels, aorta and surrounding viscera. Adrenalectomy
was done with careful dissection and histopathology with
IHC confirmed a diagnosis of conventional schwannoma.
CASE REPORT
An Asian female aged 50 years (BMI- 30.2 kg/m
2
)
presented to surgical OPD for left adrenal mass detected
incidentally on ultrasound abdomen done for an unrelated
fever episode 6 months ago. On examination her vitals
were normal, per abdomen examination revealed a 12×10
cms firm, non-tender mass with smooth surface in the left
hypochondrium extending till left lumbar region. Upper
margin of the mass could not be felt.
The mass was ballotable and moving with respiration.
Ultrasound abdomen revealed 13.4×12.5 cms round to
oval hypoechoic mass at upper pole of left kidney.
Contrast enhanced CT scan (Fig. 1A, 1B, 1C) revealed
well defined heterogeneously enhancing 10.4×11 cms
mass in the left suprarenal location. Mass had >180
degrees area of contact with left renal artery and vein and
90 degrees area of contact with the left lateral aspect of
descending abdominal aorta at the level of branching of
left gonadal artery but with no evidence of vascular
invasion (Figure 1B, 1C, 1D). Mass displaced the
surrounding organs, but fat planes were maintained.
MIBG SPECT/CT revealed no radiotracer uptake (Figure
2). A provisional diagnosis of adrenocortical carcinoma
was made.
Blood investigations including complete blood count
(CBC), liver function test, kidney function test, serum
cortisol, cortisol post dexamethasone suppression test,
DHEAS, serum testosterone, 24 hours urinary VMA were
normal. Patient underwent open transabdominal left
adrenalectomy. Intraoperatively adrenal mass was
ABSTRACT
Adrenal schwannoma is a rare differential of adrenal incidentaloma with scarce literature available at present. Adrenal
schwannomas are usually non-secreting tumours but can very rarely secrete catecholamines. Specimen of our patient
was 14 cm in diameter and weighed 900 gm which is the largest adrenal schwannoma in literature. Although it is a
benign lesion but there are no standard treatment guidelines because of rarity of lesion.
Keywords: Adrenal incidantiloma, Adrenal schwannoma, Adrenalectomy
1
Department of Surgical Disciplines,
2
Department of Pathology,
3
Department of Radiology, AIIMS, New Delhi, India
Received: 09 April 2019
Accepted: 11 June 2019
*Correspondence:
Dr. Kamal Kataria,
E-mail: drkamalkataria@gmail.com
Copyright: © the author(s), publisher and licensee Medip Academy. This is an open-access article distributed under
the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License, which permits unrestricted non-commercial
use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.18203/2349-2902.isj20193003