Adrenal Myelolipomas: An Interesting Case Series of the Silent Tumours with a Diagnostic Dilemma

Abstract

Adrenal myelolipomas are a variety of rare and endocrinologically non functional benign neoplasms of the adrenal gland. They are usually composed of haematopoietic elements with interspersed areas of fatty tissue, thus, resembling bone marrow tissue. These tumours are usually detected as an incidentaloma during routine scans on suspicion of other diagnoses and are mostly silent clinically. They have always been a subject of diagnostic dilemmas for the clinicians, as they are usually asymptomatic and benign, but are often operated upon in situations where a malignancy cannot be excluded. Differential diagnosis for these tumours include adrenal adenoma, adrenal carcinoma, retroperitoneal liposarcoma and renal angiomyolipomas. A careful histopathological examination usually settles the diagnosis. Usually, the tumours are unilateral with right sided preponderance and are small in size. Here, the authors report three interesting cases, including two females and one male, of adrenal myelolipomas with varied presentations with two cases presenting with large size tumours and in one case the adrenal tumour was located on left side.

Keywords

• adrenal tumour
• incidentaloma
• non functional tumour