Bilateral cavernous hemangiomas of the adrenal glands: presentation and management of an unusual incidental finding.

BACKGROUND

Cavernous hemangiomas are rare tumors, mainly localized in the liver and skin, but also reported in the cerebellum and eye fundus as a part of von Hippel Lindau Syndrome. Adrenal hemangiomas are less than 1% of all the adrenal neoplasms and usually are reported as benign, non-functioning tumors, originating from the adrenal cortex and surrounded by normal or hyperplastic adrenal tissue.

CASE REPORT

We report the case of patient with bilateral hemangiomas of the adrenal glands associated with a subclinical hypercortisolism, incidentally detected during the pre-operative staging evaluation of a right colon cancer.

DISCUSSION

To the best of our knowledge, this is the third bilateral adrenal hemangioma ever reported case, the first one treated with surgical resection (right adrenalectomy and surgical resection of the left adrenal mass, sparing the left adrenal gland below). Pathogenesis, presentation and management of this rare neoplasm are here reviewed and discussed.