Castleman's disease (CD) is an uncommon, poorly understood lymphoproliferative disease. Retroperitoneal forms may present as either a unicentric or multicentric disease. The present study reports the case of a 36-year-old man who was referred to the First Affiliated Hospital, School of Medicine, Zhejiang University (Hangzhou, China), for a detailed examination of an abdominal mass. The abdominal ultrasound and computed tomography scans revealed a solid mass localized in the region between segment 1 of the liver and the pancreas. An endosonography-guided fine-needle aspiration biopsy revealed chronic inflammation and lymphadenosis. The present study reports a rare case, in which the patient was treated with an exploratory laparotomy and resection. The retroperitoneal mass was pathologically diagnosed as CD of the hyaline vascular type. The patient was closely followed-up for 11 months and is presently free of disease. In conclusion, the possibility of unicentric CD should be considered when facing a solid hypervascular retroperitoneal mass. A complete surgical resection may successfully treat the disease without an unnecessarily extensive resection for the unicentric type.
Keywords: Castleman's disease; hyaline type; laparotomy.