Free floating abdominal ganglioneuroblastoma in a 3 year old male

Abstract

This is a case of a 3 year old male with a free floating neuroblastic tumor in the abdomen that was unattached to any organs. A focused comprehensive literature search was conducted, which yielded no results for a case with this presentation.This case involves a 3 year old male who presented to the emergency department after 3 days of vomiting (projectile, non-bloody, non bilious) after every meal. The patient complained of generalized abdominal pain that resolves after vomiting, and a mass was palpated in the left lower quadrant (LLQ), consistent with ultrasound findings that showed a 7 cm discrete mass medial to the spleen and superior to the left kidney.Surgical resection of ganglioneuroblastoma is typically curative and has low complication rates. During clinical follow up for this patient, patient had no subsequent symptoms suspicious of recurrence. Thus, we hypothesize that because his tumor was free-floating, this could possibly be a contributing factor for him to continue to stay disease free in the future. This is the first reported case of a free floating abdominal ganglioneuroblastoma. This unique feature can present special considerations surgically and have an impact on symptom presentation and prognosis.

Keywords

• Free floating
• Ganglioneuroblastoma
• Neuroendocrine
• Homovanillic acid
• Vanillylmandelic acid
• Prognosis