A Rare Case of Hemorrhagic Giant Adrenal Myelolipoma: Radiographic and Pathologic Correlation

Yanni S Zulia; Dheeraj Gopireddy; Sindhu Kumar; Anastasia Singareddy; Chandana Lall

doi:10.7759/cureus.17353

A Rare Case of Hemorrhagic Giant Adrenal Myelolipoma: Radiographic and Pathologic Correlation

Cureus. 2021 Aug 21;13(8):e17353. doi: 10.7759/cureus.17353. eCollection 2021 Aug.

Authors

Yanni S Zulia¹, Dheeraj Gopireddy², Sindhu Kumar², Anastasia Singareddy³, Chandana Lall⁴

Affiliations

¹ Radiology, Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine, Bradenton, USA.
² Radiology, University of Florida College of Medicine, Jacksonville, USA.
³ Radiology, University of North Florida, Jacksonville, USA.
⁴ Abdominal Imaging, University of Florida College of Medicine, Jacksonville, USA.

Abstract

Myelolipomas are rare benign tumors made up of adipose and hematopoietic tissue that commonly occur in the adrenal glands unilaterally. Spontaneous hemorrhage occurs in < 5% of these tumors, and often present as large masses. A 50-year-old male presented with right flank pain that had been growing increasingly worse over a two-week period. Contrast-enhanced Computed Tomography (CT) revealed a large suprarenal 15-cm mass exerting mass effect on the kidney and liver along with possible hemorrhage. T1 fat saturated and T2 non-fat saturated magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) confirmed the diagnosis of a myelolipoma with hemorrhage. The patient was treated with surgical resection of the mass and the follow-up pathology report confirmed a giant hemorrhagic adrenal myelolipoma. Spontaneous hemorrhage of a large myelolipoma measuring 15 cm is a rare entity and the correct imaging needs to be done in order to carry out the appropriate treatment.

Keywords: adrenal glands; body mri; computer tomography scan; laparoscopic resection; myelolipomas; spontaneous hemorrhage; t1 fat saturated sequence; t2 weighted sequence.

Publication types

Case Reports