1997 Volume 11 Issue 5 Pages 636-641
We report a 47-year-old female with a 3-year history of hyperthyroidism who was hospitalized with pneumonia. CT scan on admission revealed a solid mass in the anterior mediastinum. We performed complete resection of the tumor including adjacent adipose tissue through a median sternotomy. Histopathological examinaiton showed thymolipoma. Thymolipoma associated with hyperthyroidism is very rare and only 3 cases have been reported in the literature. The first case was reported by Corning Benton in 1966. The second and third cases were associated with myasthenia gravis as well as hyperthyroidism. Our report, therefore, is the second case of the tumor with Graves' disease only. The patient's condition improved transiently after removal of the tumor. This explains the coincidence of thymolipoma and Graves' disease in the present case.
