Multiple pulmonary chondrohamartomas in trachea, bronchi and lung parenchyma. Review of the literature.

Multiple pulmonary chondromatous hamartomas (MPCH) are rare, and MPCH with tracheal involvement have not been, to the best of our knowledge, reported before. Furthermore, there is no agreement in the literature about the origin of these tumours. We report a case of MPCH involving trachea, bronchi and lung parenchyma, incidentally found at the autopsy of a 88-year-old woman who died of acute myocardial infarction, and we review the literature about MPCH. We conclude that there appear to be two different types of multiple pulmonary chondromatous hamartomas; those presented in young patients often linked to gastric leiomyoblastomas and catecholamine-producing paragangliomas (Carney syndrome) with high mortality, and those presented in elderly patients, which seems to be compatible with life.