A CASE OF RETROPERITONEAL PARAGANGLIOMA DEFECTED AT A MEDICAL CHECKUP

A 47-year-old man was pointed out having a retroperitoneal tumor on ultrasonography at a medical checkup in March 1993, and was kept under medical observation. In May 1994 the patient was referred to the department because of an enlargement of the tumor. On preoperative imaging diagnosis, the tumor positioned on the left side of the aorta and at the inferior margin of the pancreas, and was 50 mm in longer diameter, almost spherical in morphology and cystic with a solid part. The feeding vessels were branched from the dosal pancreatic artery. During surgery, it was found that the tumor continued to the superior mesenteric plexus. The tumor was extirpated by resecting a part of the plexus. Histologically, it revealed findings of paraganglioma that the tumor was positive for two staining methods, and that polymorphologic cells with hranular cytoplasm solidly proliferated associating with small vessels. This paper describes this very rare case of retroperitoneal paraganglioma together with a review of the Japanese literature.