A CASE OF RETROPERITONEAL NEURINOMA ARISING IN THE CELIAC PLEXUS

Abstract

A 50-year-old asymptomatic woman was detected having an abdominal tumor at a medical checkup. abdominal ultrasonography revealed a 3cm-sized circular and internally heterogenous hypoechoic picture at the retropancreatic region and in the right front of the aorta. Abdominal CT visualized a circular, homogenous, and well-defined low density area adjacent to the retropancreatic region and the liver, excepting a part of the center of the area. Angiography showed a stenosis in the left gastric artery and displacement at the root of SMA. ERCP revealed no abnormalities in the bile and pancreatic ducts. The patient was diagnosed as having a retroperitoneal tumor and was operated on. The tumor adhered to the common hepatic artery and celiac artery, where both the tumor and celiac artery existed in a condition enclosed in the plexus. With exposure of the arterial wall the tumor was freed from the artery and excised. The excised tumor was 25×23×20mm in size, elastic soft, encapsulated and well-defined. The section was yellowish brown with hemorrhage in the center. Histopathologically it was Antoni type A neurinoma. No malignancy was detected. Based on intraoperative findings, the tumor appeared to be arised in the celiac plexus.