Rahman S M Tajdit, Rahim Abdur, Kibria Anwarul Anam
Department of Thoracic Surgery, National Institute of Diseases of the Chest & Hospital, Dhaka, Bangladesh.
Int J Surg Case Rep. 2020;76:73-76. doi: 10.1016/j.ijscr.2020.09.164. Epub 2020 Sep 28.
Lipoma in the thoracic cavity is very rare, unlike any subcutaneous lipoma, and can often grow very large without showing any symptoms.
We report a 42-year-old man having giant intrathoracic lipoma which was found incidentally during routine checkup and the first documented case of the such type in Bangladesh. This benign tumor occupied almost the entire left hemithorax, and it was resected successfully by thoracotomy. The postoperative period was uneventful except for prolonged chest drain. Histological analysis confirmed intrathoracic lipoma.
Usually, patients with intrathoracic lipoma are asymptomatic. But since lipomas can grow to a large size, they may cause symptoms due to the compression effect. Lipoma should be considered a differential diagnosis of asymptomatic large intrathoracic mass, and imaging is the best method for initial identification.
As intrathoracic lipoma typically grows very slowly over years without any symptoms and signs, late diagnosis is common. Complete surgical extirpation is needed to prevent further recurrence.
胸腔脂肪瘤非常罕见，与任何皮下脂肪瘤不同，并且通常可以在不表现出任何症状的情况下长得非常大。
我们报告了一名42岁男性患有巨大胸腔内脂肪瘤，该脂肪瘤在常规检查中偶然发现，是孟加拉国首例此类记录病例。这个良性肿瘤几乎占据了整个左半胸，并通过开胸手术成功切除。除了胸腔引流时间延长外，术后过程顺利。组织学分析证实为胸腔脂肪瘤。
通常，胸腔脂肪瘤患者无症状。但由于脂肪瘤可以长得很大，它们可能因压迫效应而引起症状。脂肪瘤应被视为无症状的巨大胸腔肿块的鉴别诊断，而影像学检查是初步识别的最佳方法。
由于胸腔脂肪瘤通常在数年中生长非常缓慢且无任何症状和体征，因此晚期诊断很常见。需要进行完整的手术切除以防止进一步复发。
