Left Anterior Mediastinal Lipoma - A Case Report

Prince Adu Amoako^1, and Eugene V Vivitsky²

¹Department of General Surgery, Trumbull Regional Medical Center, Warren OH

²Department of Thoracic Surgery, Trumbull Regional medical Center, Warren OH

Cite this paper

Prince Adu Amoako and Eugene V Vivitsky. Left Anterior Mediastinal Lipoma - A Case Report. American Journal of Medical Case Reports. 2022; 10(5):163-166. doi: 10.12691/AJMCR-10-5-11

Abstract

Background: Anterior Mediastinal tumors include but not limited to thymomas, terrible lymphomas, thyroid tumors, malignant germ cell tumors and teratomas. Anterior mediastinal lipomas remain exceedingly rare benign tumors and account for less than 2-5% of all lung tumor cases. These tumors can mimic malignant lung tumors and can present with but not limited to chest pain upon coughing, chronic shortness of breath, fever, night sweats and hoarseness, while some patients do not get any symptoms at all. Case Presentation: We present a 54-year-old Caucasian female who came in with concerns of an anterior mediastinal mass that was found on a routine lung cancer screening imaging that was ordered due to her long-standing history of tobacco smoking. CT (Computed Tomography) imaging done during that time confirmed the anterior mediastinal mass. The mass was also visualized and appreciated on a follow up PET (Positron Emission Tomography) scan and showed no signs of metastasis. Upon presentation months later, a left video assisted thoracoscopic surgery was done to visualize the mass and to retrieve a sample of the mass for biopsy. The specimen demonstrated segments of benign adipose tissue with patchy stromal hemorrhage and small portions of incorporated brown fat was seen, confirming the diagnosis of a left anterior mediastinal lipoma. Conclusion: Anterior mediastinal lipomas are exceedingly rare and only a few cases have been reported in the United States according to the American Cancer Society. The etiology of this rare condition remains unclear. These masses can resemble malignant lung neoplasms in presentation and on imaging. A minimally invasive video assisted thoracoscopic surgery can be done to retrieve a sample of the mass for biopsy to confirm the diagnosis. Surgical interventions like resection can be curative. Small size lipomas do not usually require surgical interventions until the mass size becomes appreciable.

Keywords

anterior mediastinal mass, benign lung tumors, Video-assisted thoracic surgery (VATS), thoracic lipomas

Copyright

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

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