2005 Volume 19 Issue 6 Pages 774-777
Here we present a case of xanthoma in the rib. A 59-year-old man was admitted to our hospital for the treatment of a chest wall tumor detected by routine chest X-ray. His chest CT scan revealed a well defined, radiolucent lesion with marginal sclerosis in the right fourth rib. Since the possibility of neoplastic lesion including metastatic maligmant diseases could not be ruled out, surgical resection of the tumor was performed. The area of the resection was determined under thoracoscopic guidance, and the tumor along with a part of the fourth rib was then directly resected through a small skin incision. Histopathological examination of the resected specimen revealed degenerated bone tissue and aggregation of foamy histiocytes with low atypism. The diagnosis of the tumor was xanthoma of the rib. Although xanthoma arising from the rib is a rare benign entity, differential diagnosis with other neoplastic diseases including bone metastasis is very important.
