Pancreatic Lymphangioma: An Unusual Cause of Abdominal Lump

Abstract

Lymphangiomas are uncommon benign malformations that can occur anywhere in the body. These are hamartomatous malformations with lymphatic differentiation, which uncommonly involve the abdomen and rarely the pancreas. The size of the cysts in pancreatic lymphangioma directly correlates with the clinical manifestations; however, most of them are non-specific. Preoperative diagnosis is challenging because conventional imaging examinations like an abdominal ultrasonogram (USG), computed tomography, or magnetic resonance imaging cannot distinguish pseudocyst, mucinous cyst neoplasms, simple cyst, intraductal papillary mucinous neoplasms, and serous cystadenoma. We are presenting a rare case of pancreatic lymphangioma where the definitive diagnosis was made postoperatively in histopathological examination. A female patient aged 27 years presented to the Surgery outpatient department with a slow-growing abdominal lump of 9 months duration. Clinical examination revealed large, non-tender, soft cystic swelling occupying the entire upper abdomen. Radiological imaging showed a large multiseptated cystic lesion occupying almost the entire abdomen and adhered to the pancreas with mass effect. USG-guided fine-needle aspiration revealed straw-colored aspirate with mature lymphocytes. On exploration, there was a large multiloculated cyst occupying the whole abdomen. Cysts were decompressed, and the entire lesion was excised. Final histopathological examination showed unremarkable pancreatic tissue with attached lesion consisting of dilated lymphatic spaces with lymphatic follicles.