Abdominal wall extra-adrenal myelolipoma, a case report and review of the literature

Abstract

Extra-adrenal myelolipomas (EAMLs) are extremely rare soft tissue tumours that constitute <15% of all myelolipomas. We present a 70-year-old patient with a midline swelling of the anterior abdominal wall. It was clinically diagnosed as an incisional hernia, though the computerized scan indicated an internal hernia. During laparoscopy a soft tissue tumour of the abdominal wall was identified and excised. Pathology confirmed an extra-adrenal myelolipoma of the anterior abdominal wall through the presence of adipocytes and trilineage haematopoetic cell lines. EAMLs are rare mesenchymal soft tissue tumours with less than a hundred cases reported in the English literature. Pathological diagnosis shows the presence of mature adipocytes as well as myeloid and erythroid cell lines. This is the first case report of an EAML of the anterior abdominal wall. This case report is made even more rare as it is present in a male patient.